Shards of Glass
by Black Rose Crystal
Summary: Tatyana Winston didn't want to attend the Xavier Institute. She was perfectly fine with hanging out with her friend Kayvan and pretending that everything thing was normal. She was wrong.
1. One of THOSE Nights

Shards of Glass

Black Rose Crystal

Chapter One 

Stretch arms…wait no those are legs. Stretch front legs, then stretch back legs. Spin around in a circle and shake your body. There we go, doesn't that feel nice?

Tatyana growls and sits down and raising her hind leg to scratch behind her right ear. She had shifted again, this time into the form of a black leopard instead of just watching in horror as her features shifted themselves around making her look like the monster she felt like deep inside. Once again it would take her a while to shift back so she lay on the floor and waited.

Want to run ….want to get out of this tiny room. Need to get out of this crowded space. Smell food, smell mom. Mom is walking up the stairs to my room…fuck.

Tatyana barely looks up when her mother walks into her room and gasps, instead only giving her a half bored look and flicking her left ear at the older woman.

"God Ty, you scared the crap out of me. Can't you warn me before you shift?" The African-American woman says kneeling down and scratching at the panther's ear, "You're going to scare your brothers and sister to death if they run in here one day."

The girl cocks her head to the side, giving the woman a look with pale green eyes.

"Right you can't talk. Can you shift back at least?" Idelle Hawkins-Winston says sitting back when the leopard stretches and starts washing herself.

Licking her paw and washing her face, the leopard closes her eyes and lets the familiar warmth that allowed the change spread through her body once more. Slowly paws changed into hands and her body lengthened and changed to that of a twenty year old African-American girl with long black hair and green eyes. Then slowly the girl's brown skin changed again until it was a light purple color with silver markings on random places. She stretches then grabs her blanket from nearby and wraps it around her naked body.

"I'm never going to get used to that." Her mom says shaking head, "and can't you make clothes for yourself?"

Tatyana blinks then shrugs, sort of missing the feeling of her fur protecting her skin, "Never felt like trying it. Did you want something?"

"Yes I did…we need to talk about this…shifting problem of yours. I think you need professional help." Idelle smiles at her daughter who just frowns before standing up and walking into her closet to pull on clothes.

"Like psychiatric help or the other type of help that I'm going to be pissed about if you mention it." The girl steps out wearing a pair of tight hip huggers and a short white hoodie over a black tank top.

"The latter kind, I doubt that you could get any help if you went to a psychiatrist. You're pretty fucked up Ty," But Idelle still winks at her daughter letting the girl know that she was kidding, "I did however contact a colleague of mine who told me about this school his son is attending."

The girl raises a pierced eyebrow, "Do I need to know who? Rather am I allowed to know who?"

"Warren Worthington II. We attended school together. His son Warren the third is attending the Xavier Institute."

"And you want me to attend as well? Mom, my powers aren't really hurting anyone and I can totally hide them so why should I go?"

Idelle gives her daughter a look, "You just turned into a leopard and your skin is purple. So what were you saying about hiding your powers?"

Tatyana rolls her eyes and her skin goes back to her normal light brown color though her hair changes to dark purple instead. She smiles sheepishly when her mother raises an eyebrow at her.

"…it could be dye…you know it's fashionable to dye your hair different colors. Whatever mom, I'm out." The girl grabs a pair of black and white tennis shoes and her cell phone and I-pod before walking out of the room and leaving her mother alone in the room.

The woman sighs and walks out of the room, "What am I going to do with you, Ty?"

*page break*

Tatyana sighs as the rock music pounds at her ear drums as her feet hit the pavement. She was running again, letting her heart pound against her chest and her lungs pant for breath as she tried to escape her regular life of being Idelle Hawkins-Winston's freaky daughter.

Her mother , Idelle Hawkins, was a famous former supermodel and sometimes author, who now owned a small flower shop in their town as a hobby while her father, well she barely remembered him, remembering only that he had ran out on the family after discovering that his only daughter's skin color had changed to purple. Her stepfather, Kaleb Winston, however was a nice man and did not care that his stepdaughter was a mutant as long as she didn't show her mutations in public and embarrass the family name. He didn't care because he too was a mutant but decided to hide his powers from the public eye. He was the typical rich businessman but unlike some rich business owners he actually cared about his family and stayed faithful to his wife and together they had three more children.

Tatyana was expected to be the perfect child both in public and out. Unlike the other children of rich parents she didn't care too much for partying and instead enjoyed reading and racing against her bodyguard, a fellow mutant named Kayvan, whose powers he never showed her. Kayvan was probably her closest friend contrasting with the other people she hung around who were the typical airhead celebrities who cared only about money, partying and getting seen. Kayvan talked to her (when he wasn't pretending to be a ninja and shadowing her every move) and treated her like a person and not a fragile piece of glass.

But the media said she was strange, getting piercings and tattoos which were really designs she randomly placed on her body out of boredom and the piercings were really extensions of her. Unlike some of the other female socialites she didn't dress provocatively nor did she dress like a total bum, in spite of what her mother thought, she usually wore tight jeans and converse sneakers with whatever shirt she felt like wearing.

And she was lucky. Her parents didn't care that she was a mutant, unlike what she heard of other people's parents, because both her mother and her stepdad had mutant powers themselves. Her stepdad had superhuman speed, which he rarely used, and her mother could control plants and earth. However, neither of their parents used their mutant abilities much because they were afraid of ruining their family name if they were found out as mutants. Yes Tatyana had a good life, she was rich, slightly famous even if she didn't really want to be, and pretty.

She was also bored.

She takes out her headphones and grabs her cell phone and dials Kayvan's number.

"Yes, Miss. Winston?" The male says softly. Tatyana didn't hear his voice nearby but knew he was somewhere close, he always was.

"Can you stop doing the ninja act and just walk beside me for once. I'm a little…"

Kayvan chuckles, "Just start walking Miss. Winston. I know."

Tatyana hangs up her phone and begins walking once more and sure enough a boy in a black hoodie and tight emo jeans starts walking beside her, his hands stuck in his pockets.

"Thanks Kay. So I suppose you heard me and mom's discussion earlier…" She says quietly as they walk down the sidewalk.

Kayvan nods, a strand of his blond streaked black bangs falling across his face, "I was in my room, next to yours of course."

"Can you believe her? I can't deal with going to a boarding school at this moment…I don't think I can take it. And I'm betting she just wants to impress Mr. Worthington…She always did have that weird competition with the man…"

"Do you want to know what I think Ty?" The boy says glancing over at her, his weird eyes meeting hers and causing her to blush. She always blushed when he used her nickname and even when he just looked at her with those strange eyes of his, the left one being amber and the right, light gray. She had had a crush on him since they met as children.

"Of course, Kay."

"I think you're scared. Other than your family and me, you don't know of many other people like you and you're scared of being around them. Why is that?" Kayvan says nudging her forward when she stops walking to look at him.

"I'm not scared!" Tatyana shakes her head and falls silent, biting her bottom lip when she feels herself shifting in small ways from her anger to keep herself semi-calm. She could feel her teeth and nails growing sharper.

Kayvan grabs her hand and squeezes it, "its okay. I was scared too when I first found out I was going to be protecting you. My father said you were different and like me and I was worried that I couldn't do my job correctly. Then I met you and wanted to do anything in my power to protect you…"

He trails off slowly, glancing around them. The sky had fallen dark and he could hear footsteps following closely behind them, "Ty start walking. Quickly."

Tatyana does what he tells her to, walking much faster than before. Sure enough she too heard the sounds of footsteps and loud laughter behind her.

"Hey where you goin' Ty? I know that's you…you're the only person weird enough to wear that outfit and dye your hair freaky colors." A voice says and Tatyana calms down a little.

"It's just Cole. He won't do anything." Tatyana says smiling and turning around when she hears the slightly country voice of her fellow "famous for being a kid of someone famous" friend Cole Tiller.

The tall blond boy walks up with four of his not as famous friends and smiles, and Ty wrinkles her nose in disgust when she realizes that all of them were holding bottles of beer.

Kayvan steps in front of her slightly and Tatyana smiles warily at the boys, "Hey Cole. What are ya'll doing out here this late?"

Cole shakes his bottle at her, grinning widely at her "Gettin' some drinks and scoping for hotties. You wanna party with us Miss. Thang?"

"We'll rather not. It's late and Tatyana needs her rest." Kayvan says frowning at the obviously drunk male.

"Why don't you let Ty speak for herself Emo boy? I didn't ask you." Cole frowns then looks at Ty giving the girl a lazy smile, "How's about it Sexy? Drop this loser and come party with us. I'll show you a better time than he is."

As sexy as she found Cole, and he was sexy with his short blond hair, pretty blue eyes and abs you can crack an egg on, she also thought he was disgusting. He drank; slept around with any woman he could get, got into fights and partied way too much. It was said that he had to go to the hospital for "exhaustion" many times which Tatyana guessed was getting treatment for his addictions. And there was also the little fact that he and his family were large supporters of the mutant registration act and publicly stated that they detested mutants.

"I'll have to decline your offer Cole. Kay's right. It is getting late and I've been working out all day…" She starts but Cole interrupts.

"Geeze Ty you've been ditching all of us lately. Skipping parties, not traveling with us anymore, ditching concerts, Hell I've even heard you skipped out on a movie deal! What are you hiding?"

Tatyana shakes her head, "I just haven't been feeling well lately. That's why I'm working out. To get back into shape from losing so much weight."

"So you must have had this sickness for a couple of month's right? Cause I've heard some rumors Ty. And if they are true our relationship just might change…"Cole's eyes flash dangerously and Tatyana bites her bottom lip to keep from growling at him.

"What are you talking about Tiller?" Kayvan spits out stepping in front of Tatyana once more.

"I'm talking about the fact that the Winston family is a bunch of mutant lovers and that Tatyana just might be one of the mutant freaks they love so much!" Cole says stepping forward and poking Kayvan in the chest, "Hell I think you might be one as well pretty boy. And I personally think we might just need to get rid of all of ya'll!"

Cole swings at the boy with his beer bottle but Kayvan blocks it and knocks it out of the way before kicking the boy in his face.

"Get back Ty!" Kayvan yells as the other boys jump onto him, punching and kicking the boy but he throws them off with surprising strength. Tatyana swore she heard the boy growl low in his throat as he kicked and punched the other boys, but she also swore she saw him smile.

"Not so fast mutie-lover!" A boy grabs Tatyana and pushes her up against a nearby wall whipping out a switchblade and dragging the blade across her cheek.

Tatyana growls and elbows him in the side before back kicking him, making the boy's head hit the wall near them, "I took karate bitch. Don't fuck with me!"

She heard Kayvan scream and turned around and what she saw next shocked her. Suddenly shadows surrounded Kayvan, Tatyana, and the others covering them and the small area with darkness. Large black wings erupted from Kayvan's back and his nails and teeth became claws and fangs. His grey eye turned blood red and suddenly what appeared to be ropes of dark energy wrapped themselves around Cole and his friends and thrust them against the ground and Cole against a wall.

Kayvan leaned close to Cole and dragged his claws across his neck causing him to bleed, "Don't ever threaten Tatyana and the Winston family again or you might regret it."

Cole just nods and tries to break free, "Please don't kill me."

Kayvan growls then looks at Tatyana who just stared back at him. He turns back to Cole and steps back, the ropes of dark energy disappearing, "Go. Go home and forget this ever happened."

Cole and his friends run off and Kayvan slowly walks towards Tatyana whose skin was turning back purple as she backed up from him.

"Ty it's me…I'm sorry you had to see that. I just wanted to protect you." He says slowly, reaching out towards her.

Tatyana looks at him, then into his eyes watching as the red eye turns back gray, "Kay…you…"

Kayvan sighs, "I can understand if you don't want me to be your bodyguard anymore."

Tatyana blinks then realizes that the boy was still her best friend even if he did have wings and scary claws, laughs softly and walks forward to hug the boy, "Dude this makes you an even better bodyguard now. You're fucking awesome, scary but still kind of awesome."

Kayvan smiles and hugs her back, his wings and claws disappearing with the strange shadow energy.

"I guess this means we really do have to go to that school then…"The girl mumbles into her friend's chest.

"Yeah I think it does."

"Damnit."

BRC: Please Review!!! Thank You!


	2. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Disclaimer: I don't own X-men.

This is kind of a work in progress. It doesn't feel done to me but here it is after a long wait. Sorry!

Chapter Two: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Cole Tiller hated going to sleep ever since he had been attacked by that freak bodyguard of Ty's. Just laying in the darkness of his bedroom caused him to see the glowing eyes and sharp claws of that monster and feel the living shadows on his skin. His parents had taken him to therapy and put him into rehab thinking that his nightmares and fears were all caused by the booze and drugs but he knew the truth.

Everything was that freak's fault.

He wanted to blame Tatyana as well, if it wasn't for her being a freak they could have been together. If her genetics hadn't been tainted he would have eventually had her in his bed screaming his name. And maybe he would have been different with her, he had always been attracted to the strange girl deep down, hell his father and step-mother thought she would have been a wonderful fiancee for him; the two famous children of two old money families combining would have made headlines all over the country. And he would be linked with the famous Hawking-Winston family and their fortune would have been his for the taking.

Yet he couldn't fully blame the girl, in spite of her freakishness, he had known Tatyana since they were both babies. Their mothers had been close friends and made them have play dates together and had them get the same nanny when they had to go anywhere. Until of course Tatyana supposedly got "sick" around the time they were hitting puberty and wasn't allowed to see anyone. Then his father divorcing his mother, Evangeline Tiller, and marring an Italian tartlet named Fiorela Bianchi, whom he had randomly met in Italy who had a personality that was as fake as her breasts and her blond hair, caused Cole to lash out at everyone. The only two people who seemed to care about him weren't around him and everyone else who said they cared only wanted what he and his family had. And then when he finally is able to see his old friend Ty again, he finds out that she has changed. She seemed almost afraid of his company and could hardly stand to be around his family, so she becomes friends with her bodyguard. At least Cole now knew why he wasn't allowed to see her and why she didn't want to be around his family.

Cole ran his hands through his hair and sighed as leaned up against his wall, his skin pale and clammy. His hair fell into his eyes now, having not bothered to cut it nor do much else to his body. He had stopped eating and barely slept and only showered because Fiorela bitched at him anytime he looked even slightly dirty. But he also knew why that was, the woman had grown bored of fucking his father for his money and wanted to try him on for size in spite of "raising him" (if you could call sticking him with a maid while she went to go blow his father's cash, raising him). Though dirty, skinnier and much paler then before, he was still attractive and Fiorela made that quite clear.

In spite of his reputation the thought of the woman made his skin crawl. So he ignored her flirtatious actions and his friends' calls and kept to himself, wondering if this was how Ty felt when she started developing her problem and didn't, no couldn't be seen by the rest of the public.

"Great now I'm sympathizing with a mutie…"Cole shivered slightly as a tremor ran through his body. He hadn't been feeling well for the last two days though, he figured it was from the lack of food and sleep his body was getting. His body alternated between being extremely hot or cold at times and pain racked his form until he could hardly leave his bed, not that he wanted to.

It hadn't been just pain, he had also been puking up blood and now he had a cold sweat. He wanted to tell his father about the problem but knew that the man would just think of him as weak after taking him to the doctor and he knew that calling Fiorela or any of the maids would also bring his father into the mix. He couldn't take being called weak, especially not after what had happened to him. But that didn't stop him from crying out as the pain intensified.

Soon the pain came to its peak, his skin felt like it was on fire and he tried not to cry as images of the demon Kayvan smirking down at him filled his mind.

"Pathetic…"He heard the demon growl and felt clawed hands on his neck and he screamed. In his mind the demon burned, like his skin was burning.

Then as fast as the pain began it ended and Cole opened his eyes only to look down and find that his skin was glowing. He rushes towards the mirror and to his surprise he sees that his skin was golden and glowing and his hair curled past his shoulders. He had gained muscle once more but was still skinner then he had once been as shown by the way his jeans hung off of him. But it was what grew out of his shoulder blades that surprised him.

Pure white bat wings extended from his shoulder blades and were covered in blood while his hands were surrounded by a strange white light. He balled his hands into a fist, staring at his hand in horror when the light turned into a white flame.

"I'm a freak…" he starts but didn't get time to dwell on his changed body when the door to his room burst open and his father Byron Tiller ran into the room.

"Son, Fiorela said she heard scream..."Byron stares at his son in shock and horror at the creature that looked like his son.

"Dad…I don't know what happened…dad?" Cole walks towards his father and watches as the man falls to the floor with his hands over his mouth, looking as if he was going to be sick.

Byron shakes his head, "No not my only son as well. God why did you have to make him a monster like his mother…"

"My mother…" Cole starts but falls silent as the man he had once thought of as cold and emotionless begins to cry.

Many Miles away at Xavier's

Tatyana slouches down in her seat as she sits in Professor McCoy's biology class, doodling on her notebook. She and Kayvan had been at Xavier's School for a few weeks, thanks to Kayvan telling her mother about the night their powers were exposed, and now Tatyana was bored out of her mind though she did like the fact that she didn't have to hide anymore.

"So is everything purple sweetie?" A voice whispers into her ear and fingers brush through her hair.

Tatyana growls and slaps the hand away, turning to glare at the blond boy next to her, "Leave me alone sleaze."

Pyro smiles slowly, "Why should I? I think a good looking girl like you should be glad someone as popular as me is noticing them."

The girl looks around and notices that she was the only one who was sitting on the row beside John/Pyro. She raises an eyebrow at him, "Right popular. More like feared. Why are you talking to me?"

"Cause you're the only person who's brave enough to sit next to me since I came back," Pyro shrugs and slouches back in his seat, "Not that I can't blame them. I am a traitor after all."

Tatyana blinks and tilts her head to the side then jumps when a book slams down onto her desk. She looks up into the golden eyes of Professor McCoy.

"Do you two have anything you care to share with the class?" He asks, raising an eyebrow when Tatyana's skin turns red from embarrassment.

"No sir."

Pyro smirks at Tatyana then frowns at his teacher, "No professor."

"Good. Now I hope you two don't mind paying attention from now on. Some of you defiantly need it more than others." Professor McCoy gives Pyro a look before turning away and walking back to the front.

"Red is a nice color on you Ty." Pyro winks at her and Tatyana glares before stretching her leg so it wraps around two of his chair legs and yanks the seat out from under him.

"Bite me, Blondie." She hisses then turns to start copying notes.

Soon class is over and Pyro runs up to catch up with the girl, sliding an arm around her shoulders and grinning down at her.

"So why did you choose to sit beside me sweetie? Was it my dashing good looks?"

Tatyana resists the urge to throw up, "Don't flatter yourself. There was a free seat this morning and don't call me sweetie."

"I'm not the only person that people are intimidated by am I sweetie? I saw the way people look at your friend over there."Pyro motions towards the window where Tatyana notices Kayvan outside sitting by himself under a tree, "You've been here for weeks but you don't have any friends yet. That's kind of pathetic really."

Tatyana sighs, hugging her books to her chest, "Shut…shut up. Firefly you don't know anything about me."

"Whatever, sweetie. Here, here's my number in case you want to have some fun with your life." He slides a piece of paper into her books and walks off winking, clicking his lighter.

Tatyana fidgets slightly with her books, tucking the piece of paper into her book and was about to continue her way down the hall when a hand touches her shoulder.

A smiling Asian girl is standing beside her, "Hey I saw you talking to the pyromaniac over there. Don't pay him any mind. I'm Jubilee. Do you want to go get some lunch?"

"Oh! Sure! I'm Tatyana Winston by the way. It's nice to meet you." Tatyana smiles brightly, blushing just a little and the girl giggles.

"It's nice to meet you too. I've seen you and your friend around here and you seemed like you were out of place and needed a friend. Do you want to invite your friend?"

Tatyana nods then blinks, "Do you think you can give me the tour first? I have no clue where I'm going."

Jubilee laughs and grabs her hand, "Don't worry. It happens to the best of us. Come on!"

BRC: Please Read and Review!


	3. Bring Me to Life

BRC: I don't own X-men or any of their characters. I do however own Tatyana, Kayvan and Cole.

Chapter Three: Bring Me to Life

"I think you're scared. Other than your family and me, you don't know of many other people like you and you're scared of being around them. Why is that?"

Kayvan thought back on the words he had said to Tatyana the night of the attack and wondered if he had really meant to say those words to himself. Here at Xavier's surrounded by people who had abilities like his own just kept reminding him of how he kept his hidden for so long, how he had kept his true self hidden. But he was happy because he could now see that Tatyana was safe and happy here and had even made a friend.

Sure the girl called Jubilee was loud and hyper but Tatyana enjoyed being around her and let the girl drag her around the school, her voice carrying through the hallways and her ever present pink bubblegum popping loudly while one arm stayed linked with "Ty Ty's". Tatyana obviously liked the girl because she was the only person who had gotten away with calling her Ty Ty without being glared at and then being kicked in the shin.

And yet Kayvan stayed in the shadows, hiding his feelings for his old friend and hiding the fact that he wanted to be the person who made her laugh and hating that Tatyana was the only female who had ever made him feel this way.

"Don't you ever get tired of studying?" A voice said to his right, reminding Kayvan that he was once more sitting in his favorite study spot under an oak tree. He knew that he had been out there for hours again and that Tatyana had probably been looking for him if Jubilee hadn't dragged her to the entertainment room to watch some random anime.

Kayvan looks up to see a tall and thin male, his silver hair cut short and falling into impossibly blue eyes. Kayvan couldn't help but notice how the teen's black shirt fit tightly across his chest.

"Stop thinking that way…"Kayvan thinks shaking his head before smiling back at the male and standing up, holding out his hand, "Sorry, I was a little preoccupied. I'm Kayvan Yin and you are?"

The boy tenses slightly, looking at the other males hand and back at his face before smiling slowly and extending his hand almost as if he was afraid to shake it, "I'm…Pietro. Pietro Maximoff…"

Kayvan shakes the boy's hand still smiling, wondering why he seemed scared to introduce himself, "It's really nice to meet you, Pietro."

Pietro blinks then grins back at him, "Ditto. I've seen you around here. You're in most of my classes in fact."

"Really? Hmm…I don't really notice much anymore. I've been preoccupied as of late."

"You seem to notice the shape shifter girl a lot though. She your girlfriend?" Pietro raises an eyebrow smirking slightly.

"Ah no, She's just a childhood friend…"Kayvan trails off scratching the back of his head.

"Hmm…anyway how about you stop studying that boring literature and come have some fun?" The silver haired boy smirks even more and Kayvan tries to fight down his blush.

"Exactly what type of fun?"

* * *

"Have you introduced yourself to Warren yet?" Idelle's voice says muffled voice says into her ear as she tries to sketch a male torso for her art class in the morning.

Tatyana sighs softly at her mother. She really should have known that she wasn't getting out of meeting the son of one of her parent's friends especially when her mother was bent on finding her the perfect husband.

"No, mother. I haven't really had the time… You know with schoolwork and all," She trails off when she hears her mother snort.

"And going out shopping with Jubilee? Yes Kayvan has his father about your new friend and he has told me. Plus I saw that you had spent money at Barnes and Nobles on your 'yo wee' manga again."

"It's called Yaoi mother, I need my boy's love manga! Plus Jubes invited me out and you know I have never actually had a close female friend. She's the only friend I have made here."

"I know honey but we are trying to make sure your future is happy as well. Promise me that you will at least try to introduce yourself to Warren okay?"

"Fine, I will mother. I have to finish this art project so I'll talk to you later okay?"

"Okay Ty. Remember your father and I love you very much and we only want the best for you honey. You'll see that when you're older."

"I know. Bye mom, Love you." Tatyana closes her cell phone and sighs, wondering how exactly she was supposed to find who Warren Worthington was. She supposed she could ask Jubilee or one of her friends but she didn't want to hear the younger girl's gossip at the moment and she wasn't that close to the girl's other friends.

She looks back at her paper, frowning when she see's that she hadn't accomplished anything on her drawing and knowing that she probably wouldn't if she didn't have a live model in front of her. But she knew that while Kayvan would have gladly taken off his shirt for her (and would have been grinning the whole time as she blushed) he was busy at the moment as he wasn't answering his cell. She also knew that she could have changed herself into a male and stood in front of the mirror and drawn herself but she had never changed sexes before and doing that seemed super creepy for some strange reason. That really left only one potentially regrettable option for her.

Tatyana stares at the piece of paper she had randomly dropped on her night stand and bites at her lip before grabbing it and dialing the number. It rang a few times and Tatyana was about to hang up when someone spoke.

"This is Pyro, what do you want?"

Tatyana gulps before speaking, "Hey…it's Tatyana. Can I ask you for a favor?"

He chuckles softly, "Sure sweetie. You know, I've been waiting for you to call."

***************

Kayvan lay on the ground panting, glaring up at the silver haired boy who was smirking down at him, his arms folded across his chest.

"You tired already Sexy? I thought you said you were going to beat me?" Pietro grinned pulling the boy up to his feet.

"That was before I knew that you had super speed. Trust me if I had known that I would have never agreed to race you." Kayvan tried to continue glaring at him but the boy's grin seemed contagious and he found himself grinning back.

"It was fun though. You did give me a run for my money when your wings appeared. You're a very fast flyer."

"When my dad saw that I could grow wings like my mother he made me train to learn how to fly fast to help me while I'm a bodyguard."

"Wow your mother can grow wings too that's amazing. I didn't know that some kids kept the same powers as their parents."

Kayvan nods, "Mmm…my father said every mutant in my mother's family had the ability to grow wings. They called it the gift of angels."

"Wow that's really cool Kay. We should hang out some more and maybe you can introduce me to that girlfriend of yours." Pietro nudges him in his side, winking.

Kayvan blushes, "She's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever you say, Sexy. Wait a minute," In a flash Pietro runs off then reappears with a pen faster than Kayvan could blink, "Here's my number. Call me anytime."

Kayvan blushes as the boy writes his name and number on the palm of his hand, laughing softly as the tip of the pin tickles his hand.

Pietro caps the pin and grins, "You know you have a sexy laugh."

"Ah…thank you."

Pietro laughs and hands him his books, "You're welcome. Hey sit beside me in literature tomorrow and then we'll grab a bite to eat okay?"

Kayvan finds himself nodding and the boy runs off leaving Kayvan to stare at his hand and grin.

* * *

Tatyana found herself blushing as she summoned the courage to knock on the door to John's room, her sketchpad and other art supplies crushed to her chest. She had shifted into her normal looking form (though her hair had once again turned purple, which reminded her that she had training with Professor Ororo about that.) and she had even changed out of her baggy black basketball shorts and into a pair of normal purple shorts and the black tank top she had been wearing most of the day with a pair of purple flip flops.

"Geeze it's just dorky Pyro. It's not like its Kayvan or anything. You don't even like him that much." She reasoned with herself, taking a deep breath and knocking on the door.

She only had a few minutes to wait because soon the boy had answered the door, his blond hair not slicked back for once and he wore a pair of baggy red shorts and a tight black t shirt that clung to his muscles. Tatyana blushed and tried to keep her eyes off of his chest, though she knew she was going to be looking at it soon anyway and without a shirt at that.

"Come on in sweetie." Pyro grins and moves aside to let her walk inside, closing and locking the door behind her.

"Uh…the door doesn't have to be closed…or locked for that matter." Tatyana squeaks, glancing back at him. The boy just shrugs and places a hand on the small of her back, pushing her forward to the bed.

"I know. So how do you want me?" Pyro lounges on the bed and Tatyana sits on the far edge of it.

"I just need a model for my art class because we're working on the male figure so…"

Pyro chuckles softly, "Yes you said that when you called me, but you aren't answering my question," He leans forward, reaching out to touch her face so she is looking into his eyes, "How. Do. You. Want. Me?"

"Um…"Tatyana finds that she lost the ability of coherent speech and John laughs at her moving away to slide off his shirt and lay back against the pillow.

"Well violet, get to drawing." He folds his hands behind his head and watches her with half lidded eyes and Tatyana grabs her sketch book and pencil.

Tatyana begins sketching silently, her eyes glancing over the top of her book to run over John's lean form. The boy was super skinny yet fit, she noticed, and she vaguely wondered if he had been fed well while living with Magneto. He obviously had trained a lot and not just with his powers because the boy had a noticeable six pack and strangely enough tattoos of flames going around his wrists, halfway up his lower arms while on his side extending to the lower part of his stomach, just under his bellybutton he had a stylized tattoo of a bird in red, orange and black.

Tatyana glances up at him to see his eyes fully closed though a smirk still graced his face and she slowly reaches out and traces the part of the tattoo on his stomach.

Pyro's eyes snap open when he feels her fingers touch his belly, shivering slightly when he notices how cool her fingers were compared to his warm skin and how slowly the tip of her nail grazed him. He inhales sharply when her fingers trace the top of the tail of the phoenix that continued on into his jeans and frowns when she jerks her hand away just as it brushes the hem of his pants.

He waits for her to speak but hears nothing but the sound of her starting to draw and he frowns slightly, "Hey…"

"Sorry about that. It's a phoenix right? Why would you get that after…"She interrupts and continues drawing not knowing how to continue.

"I suppose that Jubilee and her friends told you about how I joined up with Magneto and about the Phoenix." Pyro says sighing softly.

"Mmmhm…a little. Though it was mostly Jubilee, I'm not really friends with Kitty and Rogue and Bobby are too into each other for me to want to be around them. I'm not into the whole lovey dovey couple thing." She rolls her eyes still not looking up from her sketching.

Pyro laughs a little at her description of his former friends then sighs, shutting his eyes and shifting so he was lying on his side earning a glare from the girl, "I got this long before she returned. Phoenixes mean rebirth and immortality and I want to be remembered forever for my strength and power. I guess I identify with it."

Tatyana nods and nudges him so he was once again on his back, "Hmm…Phoenixes also mean goodness, kindness and reliability. At least that's what I heard."

Pyro's eyes snap open and he looks at the girl to see her smirking at him, "What do you…"

"Maybe you aren't as bad of a person as you think you are," She says quietly beginning to sketch once more, "I mean if you have such a good mystical creature on your body and seem to identify with it…maybe you can be reborn as well."

"Do you think so?"

Tatyana smirks then frowns, "Shut up so I can finish drawing you Firefly."

Pyro smiles a little and throws a pillow at her causing her to glare at him, "Hey my name is John. Call me that; okay, sweetie?"

"Stop calling me sweetie, Firefly." Tatyana hits him with the pillow and he jumps off of the bed to get away from her only to have her chase him around the room with it, laughing.

"Whatever you say, sweetie. Whatever you say. Hey watch the hair!" John is hit in the back of the head and tackles Tatyana on to the bed, tickling her on the side.

She wiggles away from him after a while and the two lay back against the pillows, panting.

Tatyana holds out her hand to John and smiles, "So firefly, friends?"

John looks at her hand then takes it, "Yeah Violet, friends."


	4. Kids In America

Chapter Four: Kids in America

"I don't see why I have to protect some girl…"Twelve year old Kayvan said, tugging on the tie his father had put on him.

"Because you are the only one I trust to protect Mrs. Idelle's young daughter. Of course there will be another bodyguard watching you both but this is also good training for your future," Shang Yin winks at his son, "Plus she's a very special girl."

"She's just another spoiled little rich girl. She probably will make me play with her dolls and cry if she doesn't get her way," Kayvan frowns brushing his bangs in front of his eyes, "She'll probably make fun of my eyes too like everyone else."

Shang kneels down to look his son in his eyes and brushes his bangs away from his face, "Your mother and I think that your eyes are beautiful and I'm sure Tatyana will think your eyes are too."

"The other kids at school make fun of my eyes why wouldn't she. And another thing, aren't I too young to be protecting someone only a few years younger than me?"

Shang laughs as his son swats his hand away, "You're mostly here to be her friend. She's a lot like you."

"A monster?"

"You're only a monster when you get out of bed in the morning. So have you packed your things?"

"Yes sir." Kayvan looks sadly at his empty room, hating that he was going to be moving in with the family his father protected. Sure he knew Idelle Hawkins and found that the lady reminded him of his own deceased mother but that didn't mean that he wanted to be the playmate of some bratty young girl especially when he could barely handle the changes that were happening inside and outside his body.

Plus from what he had heard, the girl was friends with Cole Tiller the rich jerk who kept making fun of him at his private school but the girl had been homeschooled for a while now so he had never seen her before.

Kayvan follows his father to the truck and slouches down in his seat, wishing that his life could be normal and that he could finally be normal for once, not a freak or a monster like Cole said he was.

*****************

"Good Morning Mrs. Winston. It's nice to see you again." Kayvan said bowing at the tall African American woman. He was always intimidated by the woman's beauty whenever he saw her, he wondered if his mother had been as beautiful as her and had asked his father if she had been once.

"She looked like an angel." His father had replied and now as he looked at Idelle he guessed he knew what angels looked like.

"It's nice to see you too young Kayvan," Idelle smiles pulling the young boy into a hug, "Tatyana is really excited to meet you but she is kind of shy at the moment which is why she isn't down here with me."

"Is she hiding again?" Shang says frowning a little.

Idelle nods frowning slightly, "She isn't happy that I've gotten remarried and has taken to hiding when people come over. She wants to meet Kayvan but I think she is convinced that Kaleb and anyone else new is going to leave her when they see her like her father did years ago."

"Poor child, I'll go get her. I know her hiding places by heart." Shang smiles and Idelle laughs.

"She did say that she hated playing hide and seek with you for some reason."

"It wouldn't be so easy if she would just change her hiding places for once." Shang walks off giggling softly and Kayvan fidgets uncomfortably.

"Dad plays hide and seek with Tatyana?" He asks looking up at Idelle.

The woman smiles sadly and nods, "Tatyana doesn't have that many friends at the moment since her mutation has emerged. She's kind of shy about it and your father tries to cheer her up with a game of hide and seek or if she says that she is too old for hide and seek he plays video games with her when he is off duty."

"She plays video games. Girls don't play video games they like dolls and stuff."

Idelle laughs, "Well I have you know that Tatyana and I love video games. Oh I think they are coming now."

Kayvan hears the sound of laughter and looks up to see her father holding a squirming girl in a white dress over his shoulder, her feet trying to kick him in the stomach. Shang puts the girl down on the ground in front of Idelle and it is then Kayvan could see that the girl's skin was light purple with silver markings while her hair was jet black and went to her waist and was in tiny braids. He understood now what his father meant by saying she was like him.

Tatyana fidgets uncomfortably in front of him for a few minutes, the skin of her cheeks turning a darker purple and Kayvan figures out that she was blushing from him staring at her.

"Hi, I'm Kayvan. Do you…want to be friends?" Kayvan glances at his father to see if that was the right thing to say when the girl stares at him. Shang just smiles brightly at him and Kayvan smiles at the girl.

Tatyana blinks at him then blushes more, looking him in the eyes, "I'm Tatyana. Do you like Tekken?"

Kayvan grins, "It's one of my favorite games ever, though I didn't know that girls play that game."

"Of course we do and I'll kick your butt at it," Tatyana grins back at him, "And yes I'll be your friend. Come on lets go to my room."

Kayvan nods and blushes when the girl grabs his hand and tugs him in the direction of the stairs, leaving Shang and Idelle to laugh at the antics of their children.

"Tekken the icebreaker, who would have thought it."Shang says shaking his head.

"It's what she's into now and I doubt that Kayvan would have liked for her to ask him to join her tea party like she did when she met you five years ago." Idelle responds giggling.

"Hey I made a great Senor Sparklepants, and Mrs. Nesbitt made great tea for a stuffed tiger in a smock and sunhat." Shang's look changes to serious, "The only thing I'm worried about is Kayvan's mutation. He is like his mother's family though much more dangerous. I'm sure he won't hurt Tatyana but every night he wakes up screaming because of it and now that he is in a new place who knows what could happen."

"What do you expect we do about it? Do you not want him to stay here?"

"No. I think it will be good for him to be around another mutant his age but don't let Tatyana see him change. I don't want the child to get hurt or scared just because Kayvan couldn't control himself or his emotions."

"Okay. I'll make sure the other guards know. Thank you again Shang. For everything." Idelle hugs the older man and he hugs back petting her hair softly.

"What can I say Idelle, you and Ty are family and family sticks together."


	5. Trouble

BRC: I don't own any of the x-men characters appearing in this story but i own all of the original characters that appear. Please Read and review. Thanks!!!

Chapter Five: Trouble

Cole couldn't believe his dad was doing this to him. First he finds out that his mother was a mutant, which was the main reason his father had divorced her, and now he himself was a mutant because of her. And on top of all that he finds himself being driven to a school filled with the very people he and his father had hated for so long, Xavier's School for the Gifted.

Cole snorts, "Gifted my ass, cursed is more like it."

Fiorela rubs his knee in what would have seemed to be a comforting manner is the woman's hand didn't happen to be going higher every few swipes upwards.

"It's okay. You'll learn how to not be a mutant here. You'll be able to hide your freaky little abilities and will be able to come home," Fiorela leans towards him, her breasts pressing against his arm, "Then we can spend a lot more time together…"

"What pretending to be a family, stealing my father's money and sleeping around behind his back? Is that what you think families do," Cole glares at her the flames appearing on his hands again causing the woman to jump back and gasp, "Let me tell you something Mother Dearest, you aren't family."

"But I'm your mother. And I will do whatever you need me to do. I mean after all you can't get into the pants of your little crush what's her name now that you look like that," Fiorela smiles to it looked more like she was baring her teeth at him, "Which I think is a good thing in the long run. She might have been rich but she was probably nothing but a whore…ack."

Cole's hand shoots out and wraps around her neck pushing her into the door next to her, "Don't you ever speak about Ty that way again. A few months ago you wanted me to get married to her so you could try to steal her family's money and now you call her a whore. What do you think you are woman? A saint?"

Fiorela coughs choking and trying to pry his hands away, staring into the glowing blue eyes of her step son, he looked like the crazed offspring of a demon and an angel, beautiful and deadly.

Cole leans close to her, his lip curling in disgust, "You're pathetic Fiorela, nothing but a gold digging whore who can't stand thinking that other people might be better than you. But if you want to fuck me that bad…"

Fiorela gasps when the boy, no man, pulls his hands away from her throat and strokes her neck gently, and she swore she felt the light sink into her body as his other hand runs up her thigh and his lips touch her neck.

The driver heard her screams from the front of the limo and he just rolls his eyes in disgust and turn up the radio louder to drown them out.

* * *

"I assure you that you will be quite comfortable here at my school Mr. Tiller. After all you aren't the only new student we have gotten in the last few months," Professor Xavier says smiling at the blond boy who was sitting uncomfortably in an armchair in front of his desk, "Maybe you should find them and make friends with them to help you settle in comfortably."

"Thank you kindly Professor. That would be real nice." Cole says smiling, he had to admit after the long limo ride to the school, he felt a lot better though he wasn't quite sure what the feeling was coming from. All he knew was that he felt full and comfortable and all the anger he had once felt had gone away.

It was too bad about Fiorela though…

Xavier raises an eyebrow when he catches a stray thought from the boy, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. He knew that the boy wasn't quite comfortable about being in a school full of mutants especially with how he was raised, but strangely enough there was a strange sense of calm coming from him that he didn't quite understand.

"You will be in the college section of the school since you are 21. Dr. Henry McCoy and Emma Frost teach most of the students that aren't able to go to Universities because of their mutations and I'm sure you will make many friends your age in those classes. In fact we got a few new students your age about two months ago; I'm sure you can make friends with them easily."

"Oh really?" Cole raises an eyebrow, looking interested and wondering if any one of them was a hot girl.

"Yes. Their names were Rahne Sinclair, Remy LeBeau, Sam Guthrie, Danielle Moonstar, Kayvan Yin and Tatyana Winston."

Cole's eyes widen, "Ty is here?"

"You know Tatyana? She arrived here with Kayvan a few months ago. I'm sure she would love to see you."

"I doubt that though I wouldn't mind seeing her again…"Cole smirks slightly, his eyes flashing a little.

"Well I'm sure she'll forgive you. She hasn't made that many friends from what she had told me in our sessions together and I' m sure seeing a familiar face will help you both out in getting comfortable here. Now how about we head towards your room?"

"That would be good. I think I will look for Tatyana later. I want to show her how much I missed her." Cole chuckles darkly and Xavier stops rolling his wheelchair just as he reaches the door.

"Oh and Mr. Tiller, I just want you to know that we don't appreciate violence against fellow students in our halls. I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt your step-mother with your abilities since you are just getting used to them but we wouldn't want that to happen to any of your fellow students understand?" Xavier looks over his shoulder at the tall young man.

"I understand completely sir."

Cole didn't know how the man had known about what happened to Fiorela but that didn't stop him from wanting to see his dear old friend Tatyana once more.

"I wonder what she'll think of the new me…" Cole thought and smiles.

* * *

"I knew you felt more comfortable in your leopard form then you do your human form, Ty. It's the same with me and my wolf form. At first I didn't enjoy shifting but it's rather comforting when you get used to it" Rahne Sinclair says laying her head on the back of the leopard that was currently lounging on her bed, she laughs when the girl snorts at her, "Oh don't give me that. I noticed how you stripped down and shifted as soon as you got to my room."

Tatyana yawns and stretches, ignoring the girl in favor of popping her back. Rahne was a relatively new friend she had been introduced to by Jubilee, they bonded after meeting each other again in their animal forms and ended running through the grounds together playing a game of what Rahne soon called "chase the kitty" much to Tatyana's dismay.

While Rahne, much like Jubilee, wasn't all that fond of her being friends with Pyro she knew that Tatyana was going to ignore them regardless and that while Kayvan was spending most of his time with Quicksilver that Tatyana needed some type of male friend to bond with. Though Rahne would have much rather the girl had become friends with Bobby, who Tatyana didn't seem to like for some strange reason, or someone who hadn't been evil she didn't try to pull the girl away from Pyro like Jubilee did and instead just introduced her to Remy, Sam, and Peter whom Tatyana seemed to have adopted as older brothers. But strangely enough Tatyana really didn't like Rogue and Kitty as much as she liked the others and tended to disappear whenever she saw them.

Tatyana moves onto her stomach and shifts back into her human form, moving away from Rahne to pull her tank top and workout pants back on before climbing back on the bed beside her friend and laying her head on her chest.

"Okay Ty what's got you so worked up? Did Pyro pull something? I'll beat the crap out of the firefly if he did!" Rahne says running her hands through the girl's hair.

Tatyana sighs, "No…not really. I haven't seen Kayvan in a long time and it bothers me. He's my friend and I miss him. I kinda feel bad from not being able to hang out with him."

"Oh sweetie he'll come around. Just give him some time. He's making friends too. I saw him playing football with Warren, Peter and Pietro earlier today. He probably just wants to hang around boys his age like you're hanging around with me and Jubes," Rahne smirks slightly, "Speaking of Warren. You haven't been introduced to him yet…"

"Yeah so…my mom wants me to say hi to him. I think she's trying to get me betrothed to him or something creepy like that…what's with the smirk wolf-girl?"

"Oh nothing. Fix your hair and let's go downstairs to get some ice cream. I feel like having a snack don't you?" Rahne continues smirking and pulls the girl up, fixing the girl's hair for her.

"Rahne…what are you doing. I don't need you to set me up with some guy I don't know. I don't try set you up with Sam do I? Rahne are you listening to me!" Tatyana cries out, yelping as the girl drags her out of the room.

Rahne just smirks and continues pulling her down the hall, humming Danny Boy as she goes knowing that Tatyana hated that song.

"Oh come on Ray. I don't even look nice right now. I'm purple and my hair is a mess and…and… I probably smell like sweat from gym class with Logan."

"You look fine. You're always purple, stupid and you don't smell that bad. I would tell you if you smelt bad cause I wouldn't be near you if you did, love." Rahne winks at her and continues dragging the girl down the hall.


	6. The Hardest Part of Breaking Up

BRC: I don't own X-Men. Marvel does! Please Read and Review! Thank You.

Chapter Six: The Hardest Part of Breaking Up

"Rahne so lied about the ice cream," Tatyana found herself thinking as she sat next to an extremely pretty blond haired boy that reminded her of Kayvan and Cole at the same time. It was probably the wings and the blond hair but whatever it was it bothered her just a little.

Rahne had dragged her not to the kitchen where Tatyana knew there was a carton of Nutty Coconut Ice Cream stuck all the way in the back of the freezer with her (and Bobby's) name on it, but instead to the commons room where she was thrown onto the couch with whom she now knew was Warren Worthington the III. Sure she was glad to get the meeting out of the way but seeing Jubilee and Rahne give her "the look" while she awkwardly tried to talk to the boy was annoying and just a little creepy. Tatyana really wasn't good with meeting new people, maybe it was from being sheltered or something but did her friends get that? No.

"So…um…our parents know each other." Warren says wondering why the girl was glaring at her hands.

"I'm going to kill them." Tatyana squeaks when Warren gives her a strange and worried look, "Not our parents! My friends for doing this, I'm really sorry by the way. This is ridiculous."

"Doing what?"

Tatyana sighs, "They are trying to get us together because I stupidly let it slip that my mother wanted me to meet you."

"Ah. Yes, my father mentioned me meeting you as well. I'm guessing your talk went something like "Meeting an eligible young woman of our standards who happens to be like yourself' "Warren says smiling a little.

"Almost exactly like that though without the young woman part of course. I know they want to help us find happiness and all that jazz but can't they let us make our own mistakes and find out who is right for us by ourselves?" Tatyana grins at him, "No offense of course. I'm sure you're a great guy and all…"

"None taken plus I'm kind of with someone. She doesn't go to this school yet but I'm trying to get her to see that Xavier's isn't all that bad. But anyway I think we could be good friends, Tatyana if that is okay with you." Warren smiles at the girl and touches her shoulder lightly.

"That's perfectly fine, Warren," Tatyana smiles and stands, "Well I'm going to get out of here before the terrible two get back and continue to try matchmaker with us. Do tell them how horrible they are at it for me darling."

Warren laughs and bows a little in his seat, "Why of course I will, love. But hey Ty, come join us for movie night later this week, maybe we can pull the same thing they tried on us on Rahne and Sam."

"You are a bad angel. I like it. Don't worry I'll be there." Tatyana waves and walks off, sticking her hand in her pocket and pulling out her cell phone. She was amused to see she had three text messages, and that one was from Pyro inviting her to his room to watch movies. However the other two were from Kayvan and said the same thing.

"I miss you." Tatyana blushes slightly, her old feelings for her friend appearing once more. She had tried to chalk them up to him being the only boy she was around for many years including the time of puberty when she was just realizing that boys weren't icky and that Kayvan was a hottie but maybe it could have been more.

Deciding that she wanted to at least go say hi and ask if she could meet his new friend, she heads back upstairs to the boys side of Xavier's, texting Pyro that she would meet him in his room right after she spoke to Kayvan.

She had just reached the top of the stairs when she heard a very familiar laugh and she grins as she peeks around the corner only to see something that practically stopped her heart.

"I knew you liked me, Kay." The boy named Pietro was saying, pressing Kayvan against a wall and kissing his neck. To Tatyana surprise her friend just moans and pulls the other boy closer to him, fumbling behind him to open the door of his room.

"Shut up Pietro and come here." Kayvan growls softly, pulling the silver haired boy into a passionate kiss and Tatyana pulls her hood up hurrying down the other end of the hall to Pyro's room.

Pyro smirks when he hears the knock, knowing that it would be Tatyana outside the door blushing as she always did when she went to his room. But when he opened the door his face fell.

It was Tatyana all right but tears were in her eyes and the thing that shocked him the most was that the girl's skin wasn't purple or brown or even red like it usually was when he saw her, it was pure white, absent of all color. In fact the girl's whole body was white though the ends of her hair and the pupils of her eyes were gray.

"Violet? What?" Pyro stiffens slightly when the girl throws herself into his chest crying into his blue t-shirt. Pyro decides not to be the arrogant mutant he always was and decides to be John her friend and wraps his arms around her while shutting the door, not having anything else cocky to say for once.

"It's okay Tatyana. I'm here for you."

Tatyana only cried harder.

Hours, a few thousand tears, and a hot shower later Tatyana sat on Pyro's bed, clad in her pajamas, while waiting for the boy to come back from downstairs. The blond boy had told her to stay in his room while he went to go get a few of her things from downstairs and that she wasn't allowed to look at her cell phone and that she was staying in his room for the night cause he didn't want her to be alone. He then threw the pajamas he had gotten from her room at her and told her to go take a shower because she smelled like sweat and that the water would make her calm down, before leaving the room once more.

Tatyana pulls her legs up to her chest and hugs them. She had to admit the shower was nice and did help but she still couldn't help the numbness in her chest. She also couldn't believe that she had gone to Pyro of all people, but she was glad she did.

The door slams open and John walks back in carrying a carton of ice cream, a few spoons, a small bag. He throws off his jacket which Tatyana hadn't noticed he had taken and drops the stuff on the bed, reaching into the bag and pulling out a DVD which he opens quickly and pops into the Playstation 2 next to his small TV. He turns them both on and Tatyana is amused to see the first episode of her favorite television show Glee start playing.

"Glee? I thought you hated this show. And when did you get it?" She says quietly leaning her chin on her knees watching as he closes and locks the door and turns the lights back off before climbing onto the bed beside her.

"It grew on me since you and that weird Marcel guy from your art class liked talking about it so much and I picked it up today. Now shut up and eat your ice cream, Rahne said she had promised you some." John picks up the carton of ice cream and thrusts it towards her.

Tatyana takes it and is surprised to find that it is Nutty Coconut her favorite, knowing that she hadn't told John what type she liked.

John rolls his eyes, "What? Everyone knows that you have started putting a carton of Nutty Coconut in the freezer that you and the Popsicle share. Only you and he would like such a weird flavor."

"It's not weird." She mumbles, moving to watch the tv while opening the ice cream and grabbing a spoon. She smiles just a little when John picks up his own spoon and begins eating, realizing that he had obviously been sneaking some of their ice cream as well.

"Yeah, whatever. This show is still stupid and they sing too much." John says with his spoon in his mouth.

"I thought you said it grew on you plus it's about a school glee club, hence the name. They are going to sing a lot. What did you think it was about? Super happy people?"

"Shut up and watch the handicapped boy sing. Isn't he your favorite? I don't see why though…"

Tatyana just shakes her head, leaning on him just a little, "Thank you Firefly."

"Yeah yeah. " John glances at the girl leaning on his side then slowly wraps his left arm around her, ducking his head down to give her a quick kiss on the top of the head.

Tatyana blinks glancing up at him but he just raises his eyebrow and pushes her head back towards the TV with his spoon.

"The TV is that way darling unless of course you would rather watch me?" He chuckles when the girl pinches his side.

"Shut up…" Her voice trails off when her phone goes off with an extremely familiar ring tone, "Did you turn my phone off of silent…"

John nods, "I used it to call Marcel to make sure I got the right DVDs since I didn't have his number….what's the matter?"

"That's Kayvan's ringtone…" Tatyana wraps her arms around herself as she remembers how Kayvan looked while being pressed against a wall by Quicksilver.

"Got it." John grabs the phone and after fiddling with if for a few seconds, her phone was on fire then lying on the floor charred and melted.

"What the Hell dude! My phone!" Tatyana yells hitting the boy.

"I took the Sims card and the memory card out and I know you save all your numbers and things on it so you can just get a new one! Ow. Ow. I didn't think you wanted to hear that ringtone right now. Ow! STOP HITTING ME WOMAN!!!" He yells as the girl continues hitting him, her eyes going back to bright green while her teeth turned into fangs.

"But I love my phone and you killed it! You… you phone killer!" She growls and tackles him to the ground in her leopard form, her clothes ripping, and causing him to scream. Slowly she realizes that he was trying to help in his own way and she shifts back, sitting on his chest.

"I'm sorry! Oh and I must say the view is quite nice from her love," John grins wickedly staring up at the girl's naked form. Tatyana just grins and punches him in the stomach before wrapping herself in a blanket, "I knew you would be naked in my room some day."

Tatyana growls and John gulps; grabbing a pair of his boxers and a shirt and handing it to her, turning around so the girl could put them on.

"You can buy a new phone you know. And now you don't have to deal with him calling you for a while…"John says slowly once the girl was dressed. She snorts at him and he grins climbing into bed.

Tatyana was about to curse him out once more for good measure when the boy pulled her once more into a hug, laying her down on to his chest and turning up the television. She tries to pull away from him, still sort of angry, but he lightly swats her butt then runs his hands through her still white hair before she could react.

John smirks when the girl actually begins to purr, her attention now off her dead phone and other matters but focused instead on the television and the feeling of his hands in her hair, "Cute."

"Say that again and I will bite your balls off, firefly."

"…ow." John glances down at her and smiles just a little more when he sees that the girl's eyes were still bright green.


	7. The ShakeAwful Feeling

Chapter Seven: The Shake (Awful Feeling)

"Danger Room sessions are the best cure for a broken heart, love. And I can't believe that I'm actually going to say this but get your sexy ass out of my bed, get dressed for a work out and let's kick butt!"

Those were the words Pyro had said only an hour ago, before throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her down the stairs to her room where he grabbed her shower stuff and then threw her literally into the bathroom on the hall, chucking her shower stuff in there after her. He then plopped himself on the bed and waited for her to return.

Tatyana thinks about staying in the shower for hours, letting the hot water burn away the emotions she was trying to repress but the shower obviously didn't agree with her being emo today and turned freezing cold causing the girl to shriek. She walks back to her room with her towel wrapped around her and grabs her clothing, ignoring the leer and the smirk that John gives her when she walks through the door, choosing instead to blush and rush back to the bath room to get dressed. She returns later, wearing a pair of tight black and red workout pants and a black sports bra and tying her hair into a long ponytail and she blinks when she notices that John was already wearing a pair of gray jogging pants and a sleeveless red shirt.

"When are you going to look…well like you again," John asks softly, stepping behind her as she pulls on her tennis shoes, his fingers brushing through the end of her ponytail, "Because it's weird to see you all washed out like this and last night your leopard form was white as well."

Tatyana just shrugs, glancing at her washed out form in the mirror on her door, and the only color on her body, other than her clothes, came from her eyes which were their normal green. She couldn't tell him that while in the shower she had tried to change her colors back and that it had failed, her skin shifting as if it wanted to change but something stopping it. She felt tired and drained and didn't know what to do about it because even though John was helping, she felt broken.

John's fingers wrapping her around her wrist and tugging her bring her back to earth and she slowly smiles, well tries to anyway. The corners of his mouth twitch just a little and he pulls her into a slow hug, his arms wrapping around her waist and his chin leaning against the top of her head.

"Don't think about it. It's going to hurt for a while but just don't think about it." He says silently and for the first time she notices that he had a slight accent.

She sighs.

* * *

Kayvan glares down at his phone, wondering why Tatyana wasn't answering his calls. He knew that the girl was probably busy with her new friends but she always tried call or text him back whenever she could. And yet since last night after he had texted that he missed her, he hadn't heard from his old friend and that worried him, causing the bodyguard side of him to freak out.

Pietro frowns at his…, well he couldn't quite call him boyfriend yet since they hadn't gone farther than make out when they were together and that was only because he had gotten tired of beating around the bush and kissed him, friend with benefits. He hated the fact that all the boy's thoughts were on his childhood friend and kept feeling like he couldn't really compete with some girl his crush didn't even like any more. That bothered him a lot because he didn't even know what Kayvan felt about the girl and Kayvan didn't like talking about it instead choosing to shut him up with a kiss, which was nice but Pietro was tired of feeling pushed to the side. He had felt that way with his father most of his life, constantly being reminded that he and his beloved sister were the result of his father's "weakness" with a human woman and it grew worse when he told his father that he was gay and was leaving the Brotherhood. Eric fully turned his back on him then, saying that he had no son, and left him to find a way on his own. Pietro defiantly didn't want to feel that way with someone he actually cared about and who didn't care about who his father was and who he used to be.

"She's fine demon boy. She's a big girl and can take care of herself," Pietro says, sliding his arms around Kayvan's neck, "You have other things to worry about, you know."

Kayvan glances back at the older male, who smirks at him, "Like what?"

"Like entertaining me, your boy…friend," Pietro flinches just a little after he says this, not wanting to see Kayvan's face and being pushed away for his words.

Kayvan just smiles slowly and kisses the boy gently on his lips, surprising him, "It's about time you said that."

Pietro smiles and pulls him into a deeper kiss falling back against the bed and for once makes his new boyfriend forgetting completely about his old friend.

* * *

"You know, Pyro, this is so not helping like you said it would!" Tatyana yelled dodging the fireworks that Jubilee tossed her way and hiding behind a metal wall that popped up.

"It could be because you aren't using your powers like you could be doing! I need some cover over here, girl!" Pyro yells back as Iceman shoots ice at him from across the room, "Why do I always have to fight him anyway?!"

"Cause you love each other and how in the heck am I supposed to help you?!" Tatyana glances up just in time to see a bunch of multi colored fireworks come her way and she ducks behind the wall again only to notice that they just hit the wall in front of her, "You missed Jubes."

"Wasn't aiming for you Ty. I would move if I were you." Jubilee says grinning and popping her ever present bubble gum at her.

Tatyana glances at the wall to see it crackling with energy and she rolls out of the way just as it explodes, "That could have killed me, Woman!"

"Oh you're fine. Now fight me Ty Ty."

Tatyana growls at her and bites her lip before charging at the girl, her right arm shifting and becoming a metal blade. Pyro sees this and raises an eyebrow at her only to be hit in the face with a ball of ice.

"Oh it is on now, Popsicle." He clicks his arm lighters and starts sending streams of flames at the fully iced Iceman who just makes an ice slide and starts sliding around him while shooting pieces of ice at him.

Meanwhile Jubilee yelps as Tatyana's left arm shifts into another metal blade, the girl smirking as she slashes at her, the blade just grazing over the girl's uniform and making a tiny incision.

"Since when can you do that?"

"I'm making it up as I go man. I have no idea what I can and cannot do yet. Speaking of which…I want to try something Professor Ororo told me about one day." She looks up in the air where Ororo was dodging Kurt's teleporting attacks and the strange energy blasts of a bat winged boy. Her hair starts to lengthen and suddenly Jubilee is tangled in the white strands and lifted into the air.

"Kinky," Jubilee says grinning and trying to throw a firework at her friend but the girl's hair wraps around her arms, "Okay you win."

"Really?" Tatyana smiles and Jubilee smirks slowly.

"Um no, now do you want to end up bald or do you want to let me go?" It is then noticed that Jubilee was slowly charging up her hair and if she didn't let go it probably would have ended badly.

"But I like my hair…and my head for that matter, fine you win Jubes."

Jubilee is placed on the ground and Tatyana's hair goes back to its normal mid back length, the girl crossing her arms and pouting.

Jubilee grins and throws an arm over her shoulder, "It's okay. I've been at this longer then you have. Now do you want to go help Firefly and Popsicle or to you want to go jump in on Storm's battle?"

"We can do that?"

"Nope but it will be fun regardless. The only problem is getting up there but you can handle that."

"Um how?" Tatyana says blinking and Jubilee rolls her eyes, tapping the girl's forehand.

"Um hello purple girl well formally purple girl, you are a shape shifter, Shape shift duh!"

"But my…"

Jubilee frowns at her, "Look I don't care. You're here to train and this in one of the Danger Room classes that isn't taught by Wolvie and that we can actually have fun in. It's best to find out what your powers can do in here then while you're getting beaten to a bloody pulp by one of Logan's exercises okay?"

"Fine. What should I do to get up there?"

"Wings?" And Jubilee laughs nervously when the girl gives her a look, "Fine you've seen Mr. Fantastic, try to stretch your body out like that."

Tatyana closes her eyes and reaches up and… nothing happens.

"God you're lame."

"Shut up." The two girls hear a crackling sound then a boom and the next thing Tatyana knew the bat winged boy was falling from the air. Tatyana freaks out and the next thing she knows she had dove forward, her arms and hair were stretching out to wrap around the falling boy's body causing him to land on top of her hard. Tatyana winces slightly when his back hits her chest but realizes that it didn't really hurt as much as she thought it did. Her arms unwrap around him, snapping back into place, and she untangles her hair from his body and the two sit up slowly.

"Heh sorry about that. Thanks for the save." The boy says turning his head to look at her and Tatyana looks into a pair of very familiar blue eyes.

"Cole!" She shoves him away from her, scooting backwards and hitting her back against Pyro's legs, who helps her up slowly.

"You know this guy?" He asks looking from her to the blond boy with bat wings, who was wearing a pair of ripped blue jeans.

Tatyana nods as Cole walks forward and stares at her. Their eyes meet and Cole finally realizes who he was looking at because her eyes were what he remembered most.

"Ty?" He says using her nickname. He hadn't seen her since the attack and even though he knew that she was at the school, he couldn't find her among all the other students and now he saw why.

"Hey…Cole. What are you doing here…" She then fully notices the wings on his back and raises an eyebrow as the boy smirks slightly.

"Let's just say Karma's a bitch."

Ororo floats down from the air and begins to check over the students with Nightcrawler's help, "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, Storm. Tatyana helped the new guy." Iceman says dusting a few ice crystals and ashes away from his uniform.

Ororo smiles at the girl who was still eyeing Cole warily, "That is very good of you Tatyana. I'm glad you are learning control over your powers." She blinks at the girl's albino like coloring.

"Well some control but I'm sure you'll eventually get the hang of them. Now it seems that you two know each other, Cole, Tatyana?"

Tatyana glares at Cole then sighs, "Yeah I guess you could say we were old friends. I'm gonna hit the showers. Thanks for letting me come to your training session Miss. Munroe."

"Anytime, Tatyana."

Cole watches as the girl jogs out of the room and he slowly follows behind her, a smirk gracing his lips, "I wonder where her little pet demon is?"


	8. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Chapter Eight: Thnks Fr Th Mmrs (Thanks For The Memories)

Pyro ran his hands through his hair as he stood under the stream of water, pushing the brown strands away from his face. He moved and laid his head against the wall before him, trying to ease the stress and pain that came from fighting in the danger room. Sure he might have enjoyed battling, getting stronger to overcome the limitations of his powers was one of the reasons he left the X-men in the first place, but that didn't mean he liked the ache in his muscles that came afterward and the chill that always covered his body after he was put against his former best friend.

He hadn't even meant to come back to the X-Men in the first place. After being knocked out by Iceman during the fight at Alcatraz, they had taken him back to the mansion and treated the wounds he had gained, not to mention the frostbite that had gotten to his body thanks to a certain someone freezing his arms. He didn't intend to stay after he had been healed either but Ororo had asked him if he really enjoyed being in the brotherhood, if he had anyone left to turn to if he left the mansion once more and he realized he had no one. The rest of the Brotherhood had been defeated and he had no idea where Mystique was hiding after she lost her powers and he had no family to turn to either, his family being back in Australia. He was really and truly alone.

"I…no, no I don't." He had said, glancing down at his bandaged arms. Ororo had just nodded and touched his shoulder, ignoring the way he flinched away from her touch.

"You can stay here once more, John. You will be placed under surveillance and we will be taking your flamethrowers away for the safety of the other children but you will have a place to stay and will be able to attend classes once again."

John was kind of wary about returning to the very school and the people he had betrayed but he knew he really had no choice, "I'll …can I have a few days to think about it?"

Ororo nodded and he was left alone. He spent most of his time in the Infirmary after that, not wanting to go out and see the other students glare at him. His only visitors were Ororo, Beast who was his doctor and surprisingly Bobby.

"Just come back John. What have you got to lose? What do you have out there to keep you from going back? At least here you can learn and get a few healthy meals, lord knows you need both." Bobby said, not glancing up from his comic book. He had been hiding out from Rogue and Kitty, the two girls having started fighting for his attention after Rogue got the cure and he was obviously annoyed at it. Hiding in John's hospital room seemed like a best bet since they all expected him to hate him and not want anything to do with the boy, he actually had wanted to see his old friend again. He mostly just sat and read while John watched television while he was in there until John had finally ended up breaking the silence to ask him about his comic book and the two ended up talking like friends again leading to the discussion on Professor Ororo's offer.

"What, do you actually want me here, Ice boy? Did you miss me?" John smirked only to have Bobby stand up and roll his eyes.

"Get over yourself. At least I cared enough about you to bring you back here; would your other little teammates have done that?"

John knew they wouldn't have. Sure Mystique acted somewhat like a friend to him but he knew she was in the Brotherhood for her own reasons and he was in it for his, as was everyone else. He had seen that when Magneto left the one person who had stood beside for so many years just because she had been given the cure even when it was to save him. He still stood beside Magneto, had even said that he would kill the Professor but part of him simply didn't want to be there anymore. So he agreed to come back to the X-Men and take the stipulations they placed on him, just so he could have somewhat of a home once more.

It wasn't much of a home though, the other kids were scared of him and the only person who talked to him was Bobby. At least until Tatyana walked into Beast's Biology class.

Pyro smiled as that day plays through his head, his hands scrubbing shampoo through his hair to keep from wandering down to someplace else when he thought of his friend.

He had thought she was hot even then, the way she walked into class semi shyly even though she was dressed in a tight t-shirt and a black skirt that showed of a pair of toned purple legs. He found himself staring at those legs as she walked, and to his surprise she took a seat next to him instead of one of the ones at the back of the class where the other kids sat. He studied her slowly, watching her take out her notebook and begin taking notes, noticing that while her skin was purple it had random silver markings on it and that her ears were slightly pointed. He thought she looked a lot like an elf from that lame game that that weird Doug Ramsey kid played with Kitty on the computer.

"Hey sweetie, I thought I should introduce myself. I'm Pyro and you are?" He had said tapping her lightly on the arm. She glanced at him then nodded.

"Tatyana…your name isn't really Pyro is it?"

"It's… John Allerdyce but why hide what I am? I'm a mutant and my mutant name is Pyro. So what's your power?"

"Um…I'm a shape shifter…"

Pyro smiles a little, "Cool."

"You don't think it's weird?" Tatyana gave him a look and he shook his head and laughed.

"I knew a shape shifter. She was…pretty talented. Plus I've learned that it's sort of lame to judge people by their abilities. Here use my book since you don't have one. I wasn't going to use it anyway."

Tatyana smiled then and it was then Pyro realized he wanted to get to know this girl. No it wasn't love at first sight or anything and in fact it was more like lust at first sight from the way his eyes seemed to like staring at her legs and backside when she walked but he wanted to at least become her friend somehow he guessed it was because he was a little lonely. Though he wouldn't admit that to her.

They became closer after she came to his room for her art project, hanging out together when Jubilee and Rahne didn't take up her time. And now he realized after seeing her so hurt by her old friend he didn't want to be just friends with her but he also knew that while he didn't want to see her hurt by him that he didn't want to be hurt either.

The water turns cold and he shuts if off, wrapping his towel around him and stepping out of the shower and heading back towards the locker room. He shakes his hair out of his eyes, slightly annoyed that somehow his female friend had gotten him to dye it back brown and even add a few red streaks to it, saying that he looked like "a total creeper with ugly hair", but he still liked it even though she also stole his hair gel and gave it to Logan. He had to admit that he was being noticed more by the other females at the school though it kind of freaked him out that Kitty was one of the ones who had started flirting with him.

"John did you die in here? Dang you take long to get dressed." Tatyana says walking into the locker room just as John was dropping his towel and pulling on his boxers. She blinks at the naked boy, her eyes trailing over his chest then going lower and not moving. A light purple blush appears on her face and she turns away quickly.

He smirks though a blush had formed on his own face, "Like what you see sweetie?"

"I'm going to pretend that this never happened. So...I'll...be...outside, yeah, outside." The girl runs out of the room and John laughs tugging on his boxers then the rest of his clothes.

He heads outside where Tatyana was waiting with Bobby, an ear bud stuck in one ear as she listened to him.

"So her name was Magma…"She trails off when Pyro slings an arm around her shoulder and kisses her forehead a little causing the girl to blush more.

Pyro glances at Bobby at the mention of Magma, "What are you talking about her for?"

"Oh…Kitty heard that Magma was coming back to the school. I thought you would want to know since she was your ex and all. I was just telling Tatyana about her."

"What do you mean she's coming back? I thought she left for Brazil again with her new boyfriend to visit her family or something."

Tatyana winces when her friend's fingers tighten on her shoulder and she looks up at him to see his brown eyes were hard and angry looking and that he was biting the corner of his lip.

'I wonder who this Magma girl is.'


	9. Situations

B.R.C: I only own Kayvan, Cole and Tatyana in this story. X-Men or any of their characters belong to Marvel and their respective creators. Don't sue. Please Read and Review this story. I respect and would like feedback on anything I might need to change. Thank you.

Chapter Nine: Situations

John couldn't believe that after all this time that Magma, aka Amara Aquilla, the girl who had dumped him for some random boy after saying that he, Pyro, wasn't good enough for her was going to come waltzing back into Xavier's after years of being it Brazil doing who knows what. He wasn't sure what to feel about the situation but he did know that it killed his mood just thinking about the fiery blond who had broken his heart. It just made him so angry remembering Amara and all the things she had done to hurt him and it didn't help that Kitty and Rahne seemed happy to hear of the girl's return.

"It will be great to see old friends again. Isn't that right John" Kitty had said giving him that knowing smile and wink, "Though I can understand if you two don't want to get back together…I mean there are plenty of fish in the sea."

John gave Kitty a half shocked half disgusted look, "You've been hanging around that Marcel guy again and he's been using his weird empathic powers, right? Cause that's the only reason I can think of to explain what you just said."

Kitty giggles and John growls, walking over to Tatyana and grabbing her wrist, yanking her out of her seat and towards his room. He ignores the girl's protests of wanting to finish drawing in the common's room and continues on his way down the hall.

"I…"

John glances at the girl, worried about what she would say about the ex-girlfriend situation.

"Think Kitty was just hitting on you. That's…strange…and kinda creepy. You gonna hit that?" Tatyana giggles and dodges the hit John throws and walks over to the bed to go finish her sketching.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say 'you gonna hit that'. Now that my dear is creepy"

"Whatever. Kitty is a nice girl…you should…ask her out. She seems lonely 'cause Rouge mentioned something about her and Peter breaking up a few months ago…" Tatyana says sitting down. John watches the way she fidgets with her sketch pad with a raised eyebrow. Did she really want him to ask Kitty out or was she just trying to make her friend happy?

"I don't like Kitty like that anyway. I don't think Peter is all that over her either, I heard him and Warren talking about him wanting to ask her out again but Bobby has been cock blocking him by flirting with the girl," John takes a seat behind her on the bed and he pulls her backwards into his chest, "Why do you think I would want to ask Kitty out?"

"Cause…she's pretty and…" Tatyana trails off when his arms tighten around her.

"Trust me sweetie. Kitty is not my type…"

"Then what is…" The girl finds herself blushing, glancing over her shoulder at him and her heart beats just a little faster when she sees him lick his lips. She hadn't felt like that since…well since she accidentally saw John naked the day before.

John opens his mouth to speak but was interrupted a knock on the door. He growls and stands up, slamming the door open. Bobby just gives him a look and waves over his shoulder at Tatyana with a grin.

"Am I interrupting something?" The blond says smirking when he sees Tatyana blush.

"Shut up, Popsicle. What do you want?"

Bobby shrugs, "Just wanted to see if you wanted to play basketball with us. We're short a man. We have Peter and Warren on my team and just Sam and…Gambit on the other. We can also use some cheerleaders too, Ty."

John grins when he hears the way Bobby growled out Gambit's name then glances back at Tatyana, "You want to go, Ty?"

"Sure. It's not like we have anything else to do…"

"Oh we could be doing something else…" John catches the sketchpad aimed for his face, "Do you think you can shape shift into a cute little cheerleader's outfit as well?"

Bobby grins when Tatyana punches John in the stomach, noticing once again the faint blush on the girl's face when she does so, "Come on you two love birds, we can't keep the others waiting."

* * *

Tatyana hated basketball.

To her it was just another boring sport that guys played to prove their masculinity, even if girls played the sport as well. Truth be told Tatyana didn't like any sport other then martial arts; probably because she didn't get to play many team sports as a child. Sure her step-father and Shang had watched it on TV many nights but she would have rather read comic books with Kayvan then watch the sport.

Which was why the girl was sketching Pyro instead of watching the game, and was sitting on the lawn a little away from the basketball court with the boy's black jersey resting around her shoulders and a bottle of water leaning against her leg. She glances up through her white bangs and traces the shadows on his muscular back, wondering how such a skinny guy got so muscular when all she had seen him do was throw fireballs at people in the Danger Room. Something deep inside of her tells her that she wants to trace those muscles with her fingers just to see him shiver again like he did when she had touched his tattoo and she finds herself blushing, unused to the feeling.

The feeling wasn't like it had been when she was with Kayvan; this was more primal and raw. It pooled in the lower part of her stomach and caused a blush to form on the pale skin of her cheeks. She glances up and watches John stretch up to take a jump shot then bites her lip when the muscles of his arms tense. It didn't help that he had made the shot and turned around to grin and wink at her and she hides behind her sketchbook.

"Your friend is pretty good at basketball, Miss Winston."

The pupils of Tatyana's eyes shrink into slits and she finds herself wanting to go hide but she turns around and smiles at the taller man behind her.

"Hey…Kayvan."

Kayvan smiles a little at the girl then opens his arms for a hug, "I've missed you Ty. How come you don't answer my calls anymore?"

Tatyana freezes then steps into his embrace, hugging back limply but hating that she still loved the feeling of his arms around her. She then realizes that she liked John's hugs more and sighs, taking a step back.

"I've been busy. I guess…kind of like you and Pietro…" Her eyes harden and stay catlike when she sees Kayvan fidget and blush.

"I see you heard about us…how did you find out?"

Tatyana shrugs and continues hugging her sketch book, the picture of John pressed against her chest. She vaguely hears screaming and then yelps when John throws his arms around her, spinning her in the air and kissing her cheek.

"We won Vi! Did you see that…" He trails off when he sees the look on her face and follows her gaze to Kayvan who was frowning with his arms crossed.

"Who's this Ty? Oh wait I know, Magneto's former bitch. Why are you hanging around this trash?" The taller boy growls a little, glaring at John.

John frowns and slides his arm around Tatyana's shoulder causing the boy to growl some more, "Maybe because I won't hurt her like you did, demon boy."

Kayvan's eyes widen and he looks at Tatyana, "How…did I hurt you Ty?"

"I…have to go…can we talk later?" The girl fidgets uncomfortably and runs off, dropping her sketch book behind her and does not notice the blond girl who walks up to John as she leaves.

"Johnny! I've been looking for you everywhere!" The girl says practically skipping up to John as Kayvan walks away. She latches on to his arm just as he bends to pick up his water.

"Oh hello…Amara."

"Call me Allison now, Johnny. We have so much to talk about!" The girl smiles, her blue eyes shining brightly and John resists the urge to call out for help.

"I'm sure…"

Kayvan bends down and picks up Tatyana's sketchbook before following behind the girl, determined to find out what was wrong with her.

* * *

Tatyana falls onto her bed, pulling John's shirt from around her neck and sighing down at it. She glances around then slides it on before curling up, the scent of her friend's body wash reaching her nose. Deep down inside she knew that she didn't think of John as just a friend any more but she also knew that she didn't want to admit it. It didn't help that she kept remembering him without his towel when she walked in on him in that locker room.

She closes her eyes and touches her stomach when she feels the strange feeling in it again and she blinks when she feels the skin of her stomach shifting. She tugs up her shirt and blinks down at an exact copy of John's tattoo though smaller and smiles a little before snapping to attention when her door opens.

Kayvan holds out her sketchpad to her and glances up at her through his bangs, his head down.

"Can we talk, Miss Winston?"

Tatyana fidgets and drops the jersey down over her stomach before grabbing the sketch pad and sighing, "Just start walking, Mr. Yin."


	10. Fireflies

BRC: You know who i own and who i don't. Why should i say it. Fine. I don't own Marvel.

Chapter Ten: I Miss You

Kayvan looks over at his friend only to see the girl staring off space, her left leg fidgeting uncomfortably as they sat together under a tree. He found himself wondering why she didn't want to speak to him and tries to touch her shoulder only for Tatyana to pull away quickly.

"Okay Ty, why are you acting like this? What have I done?"

Tatyana frowns a little then sighs, "I'm sorry Kayvan. It just bothers me that you didn't trust me enough to tell me about your boyfriend or that you were gay. I know I haven't been the best friend these couple of months but…finding out the way I did…just hurt."

"I wanted to tell you, I really did. You are my best friend and you were the only girl I had feelings for but I knew that maybe my love for you wasn't that type of love. You're like my little sister and I will always love you."

Tatyana freezes, the pain of actually hearing him say that she was like a sister to him hitting her fast and yet not hurting as much when she saw him kissing Pietro. Slowly she realizes that in the past few days her feelings for him had somewhat shifted, though she knew that she would always love him in some form. She glances at him, seeing him staring at her waiting for her to speak.

"Love you too bro, even though it hurts a little," She snorts when he kisses her forehead, "Ew dude…no physical contact."

Kayvan laughs and gives her a noogie causing the girl to giggle. Neither of them noticed Cole standing in the tree above them, his cold eyes staring down at them.

"Well this is interesting." Cole smirks when he remembers confronting Tatyana in the locker room only the day before. It was surprisingly easy to sneak into the female locker room while she was alone. ..

~Flashback~

Cole watches as Tatyana stares in a mirror, her wet hair dripping over her shoulders. He found it amusing that she was so pale now and knew why he didn't notice her around school. She looked strange and he found himself wanting the old Tatyana back, his African-American friend who didn't look at him with disgust.

"This is so strange…why would he even come to this school when he hates…us so much." She was mumbling. He walks forward and touches her hair, smiling at her in the mirror.

"Probably because I can't change what I am either." His grin widens when she jerks forward, turning around and holding her towel to her body.

"Geeze Cole, do you know how creepy it is that you're sneaking into the girl's locker room? What's wrong with you?" She says pressing against the mirror behind her and he resists the urge to laugh, finding her fear hilarious especially since this was the same girl who back kicked one of his friends to help her bodyguard.

He reaches out and touches her cheek, brushing his knuckles across her face, "I just wanted to talk to you alone. I wondered why I couldn't find you in the school and I can see why…why don't we put everything behind us? You and I aren't so different now."

"You tried to hurt us…Kay and me. Just because of your hatred. You were right, Karma kicked you in the ass." She slaps his hand away and freezes when he growls, watching as his eyes flash dangerously.

Cole takes a shaky breath and leans his forehead on hers, "I…am sorry for all I did Ty. I really am. I just want to have you back as my friend…I have no one…"

Tatyana says nothing, moving back as far as she could which wasn't that far at all. She tries to see if Cole was lying but couldn't explain the emotion he saw in his eyes. She did however notice the glow his left hand was giving off and that scared her. She freezes when she feels his lips touch her forehead.

"I really did miss you." He drawls softly before pulling away and walking out of the room, leaving the girl to slide down to the ground, her body shaking. She didn't see the smirk on his face.

~End~

Cole himself didn't know why he liked messing with Tatyana's mind so much but he did know that he wanted to hurt Kayvan Yin and the main way to do that was through the person he had to guard. Though it seemed that the two of them weren't as close as they had been when he had last seen them together. Then again he himself wanted to go back to the way he and Tatyana used to be as children but he wasn't sure how to do that.

So he watched and waited, confused with the dueling emotions that ran through him when he looked at her. Part of him wanting to get back at her for abandoning him all those years ago and the other part just wanting to go back to being Ty and Cole, simple kids with no strings attached.

"What's with you and...That boy..." Kayvan says suddenly his eyes gazing straight ahead to keep from looking at his friend.

Tatyana looks up from where she was flipping through the sketch book and shrugs, "We're friends."

"Close friends?" Kayvan's right eyebrow raises and he glances at her and she smiles a little, pausing on the page she had first drawn of Pyro.

"He was there for me when I needed him. He's become very close to me and I enjoy being around him."

"So you like him?"

"Kayvan! I'm not discussing this with you." Tatyana frowns at him and pushes him in the shoulder and the older male laughs, throwing an arm around her.

"You like him. Does he know?"

The girl pushes away from him and holds the sketchpad to her chest, "I don't like Pyro...well....He's a friend okay?"

"Keep telling yourself that Miss Winston. I can read you like a book. Come on, its late and I'm sure your lover boy is worried."

"You're one to talk."

Cole watches as the two teens walk back into the building and his wings extend before his flies off. He didn't notice the tip of Logan's cigar light up and the frown on the man's face as he watches the boy fly into the night.

* * *

Meanwhile Allison (Amara) looks around John's room, raising an eyebrow at the cleanliness of the place.

"Since when do you clean, Johnny?" She says trailing her finger on the desk nearby. John stands near the door, his arms crossed before his chest.

"Since when do you care, Amara?" He spits out her name, glaring at the girl who just turns around and smiles.

"Now Johnny don't be like that. I came back because I missed you," Allison walks towards him and holds her arms out for a hug, "Didn't you miss me?"

"About as much as I miss a toothache, hun. Honestly I don't know why you would even say something like that. You left me Amara, you went off to Brazil saying that I was nothing but a thug, that my friends were the freaks among freaks," John walks closer to her till their faces are inches apart, "You said I wasn't good enough for you."

"I was wrong, Johnny. I realize that I ..." She leans up and tries to kiss him but he pushes her away, his lip curling.

"Don't touch me, please don't touch me."

John stiffens when she wraps her arms around him and lays her head on his chest, "Please John. Just give me another chance. You know we're perfect together. It just took me some time to realize it."

Allison holds up her hand and a heart of fire appears but John makes it disappear.

"Leave."

Allison sighs, "Fine, John. Just tell me this: does your girl toy know who you really are? Can she really deal with the true you? Because I did John, I was here when you first came to this school with nothing. When you were just a little thug who burned his own..."

"Leave, Amara! Do you not understand that I don't want you here?" John winces as his skin seems to get hotter and Amara frowns before stalking out.

John collapses to the floor, sweat pouring off of his body and he leans his head onto his knees. The door opens and he growls expecting to see Amara.

Tatyana blinks and points at his shirt, "Shall I leave this here then....why are you sweating like a pig?"

John motions her to come forward and she shuts the door with her foot before walking to him and sitting on the floor in front of him. Tatyana blinks when he falls forward onto her but wraps her arms around him wondering why his body was so hot. Silence falls between the two until...

"Do you want to take a shower and watch Robot Chicken?"

John looks up and grins, "You know I love you right?"

Tatyana snorts, trying to fight the blush that appears, "Yeah yeah. I'll go get snacks, okay? You go shower...lord knows you need it, sweaty."

"Pfft whatever you know you like it," The boy poses a little and Tatyana's eyes trail down to stare at his abs, "Yeah you like it."

Tatyana blushes and tugs on his hair, "In your dreams, loser."

John leans forward with a smile, his lips inches from hers, "In my dreams you're naked and screaming my name."

"Hmm...interesting...yep...heh...interesting..." Tatyana tries to back up but John pins her down and grins.

"Scared, Violet?"

"Of the way you smell yes. Talk to me when you smell like body wash instead of body odor." Tatyana grins when the boy rolls his eyes and climbs off of her.

"You are such a mood killer you know that?" He says frowning a bit. The girl grins and grabs his hand before tugging him down and kissing him briefly on the lips.

"Yeah I know. I'm gonna go get snacks" Tatyana winks and walks out of the room leaving John to stare after her.

"That was new..."

BRC: Please leave a Review. Criticism welcome! Thanks!


	11. Pour Some Sugar on Me

BRC: I own the plot and a few OCs but that's it. Disney/Marvel owns the rest. I also do not own the few lines from the "Princess and the Frog" that appear.

Chapter Eleven: Pour some Sugar on Me

Tatyana sighed as she sat in front of Professor Ororo's desk after class, her eyes gazing at the picture of an African-American blond boy that sat on the corner.

"Now Tatyana, I want to talk to you about your changing situation here. Care to explain what happened?" Ororo says pouring two glasses of iced tea and handing one to the girl.

"I'm not sure how I ended up like this myself," The girl rubs at a burn mark on her arm bright red against her pale skin, "So who's the boy?"

"My nephew, Evan Daniels aka Spyke. Anyway what do you mean you don't know how you ended up like this and might I ask what's wrong with your arm?" (A.N. : Yes Spyke from X-Men Evolution. His existence confuses me.)

Tatyana tilts her head to the side, "I thought you were an orphan."

"I am but that has nothing to do with the situation."

"Then how do you have a nephew..."

"I was adopted into a family. Though that does not have anything to do with the burn mark on your arm so kindly explain that please."

Thunder rumbles in the background and Tatyana's eyes widen.

"Okay okay...do you act the same way when Logan asks about your past? Anyway..."

Tatyana frowns when she remembers how she received the burn mark. It had been a lot worse then it looked but thanks to Dr. McCoy, and him explaining how she could heal herself by shedding the skin of her arm, it was somewhat better. Though seeing her skin come off like a snake's did not do her stomach any favors.

It happened when she had been walking to class with Jubilee and Amara bumped into her arm while passing by in the other direction. She swore she heard the girl whisper , "Bitch" under her breath but was more concerned about why her arm felt like it was burning instead. She ended up with small burn on her arm and had to lie to Dr. McCoy about burning it on the stove while helping Gambit cook. She had told the truth somewhat, she was going to be making pastries with Remy, just later that day.

"I...hurt it on the stove while helping Remy cook. We're making beignets later by the way. Do you want some, they are delicious. Plus it doesn't matter anyway it's healing...slowly." The girl stops herself from rambling on and smiles sheepishly.

Ororo sighs, "John didn't do it did he?"

"Why would John hurt me? He's...my friend." Tatyana says shocked.

"Well you know he wasn't the nicest person in the past, no matter how he acts currently. He could..."

"He wouldn't and he didn't." Green eyes meet blue and Ororo smiles.

"That's good. I just wanted to make sure. It's just that John... has been through a lot and he always isn't in control of his abilities. It's part of the reason why he can't make fire on his own to this day..." Ororo trails off and the younger girl frowns a little.

"What do you mean ma'am?"

Ororo shakes her head, "It's really not my place to tell you the whole story. Now shall we head to the Greenhouse to meditate? I'm sure calming down will help you with your shifting."

Tatyana frowns and picks up her glass of iced tea before heading out of the office with her teacher.

* * *

"She kissed me, Bobby! Sure it was barely touching but I still felt it," John says as they sit in Bobby's room, playing the X-Box 360, "I actually wasn't sure how to react."

"Wow Pyro made speechless by a simple kiss. I'm amazed. I should congratulate Ty on getting you to finally shut up," Bobby laughs when his friend hits him, "But seriously, I'm happy. It's about time you get some especially after that Magma deal."

"Yeah I guess so." John looks down and his friend sighs and shuts off the TV.

"Magma talked to you didn't she?"

John nods, leaning back against Bobby's bed suddenly glad that his roommate Gambit was downstairs baking, "She brought up the past."

"Shit, dude. What she say?"

"Asked if Ty knew who I really was, if she knew about what happened before I came here."

"Bitch, I'm sorry man. I will say something to her if you want." Bobby starts but his off again/ on again friend shakes his head.

"No...It just made me think. Violet's my friend, you know. I eventually told you about everything though you were nosy and actually went through my files to find out...I just...don't want her to judge me."

"Um...Pyro, you are technically a terrorist. She eventually didn't care about that. In fact I just think she was bothered by the fact that you were a total creeper. Well are a totally creeper," Bobby grins when John glares at him, "Just tell the truth and hope for the best."

"If you say so Popsicle, I hope you're right though." John reaches over and starts a new game, turning the TV back on.

"Firefly, I'm always right and you should know that by now."

"Always right hmm?" John glances at him and grins.

"Tch yeah. Always."

"Then what's going on with the Rogue and Kitty situation?"

John just smiles and starts kicking his butt when the blond boy falls silent and a blush forms on his face.

"Cheater."

"Loser."

"You suck so hard man," Bobby pushes his friend in the shoulder, "So very hard."

"You would know about sucking hard wouldn't you, Bobby?" John grins and dodges when the boy tries to hit him.

* * *

Gambit smiles as he watches Tatyana hum as she walked around the kitchen, struggling to make the French pastry. He knew the only reasons she wanted to make Beignets were because of her new favorite Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" and the small fact that she wanted to impress John. It would seem that Kitty had started talking about how Amara was such a great cook and used to make stuff for John while they were dating.

He guessed that Tatyana had gotten jealous and enlisted him as her culinary teacher and it didn't matter to him either. He had been wanting to make the pastry for Rogue anyway. After all everyone should have a taste of "New Awlins" right? Even if "everyone" was really just one brown and white haired Southern girl who happened to cause his knees to go weak anytime she even said just his name.

"Remy, is it supposed to bubble like that?"

Remy snaps out of his daydream about Rogue and glances at the bowl Tatyana had been mixing, the batter inside rising up out of the bowl at an alarming rate.

"Does Remy even want ta know how ya managed that?"

"I told you mom didn't allow me to cook for a reason. She and her maids did the cooking, especially after the microwave exploded that one time. Oh look! It's getting bigger."

"How much yeast did ya add, chére?"

"I'm guessing it's not good to add more yeast to make it bigger, right?"

"..."

Tatyana grins, "You know what this needs? A sharp stick!"

"This ain't da time to quote, Louis, chére."

"I suppose 'this ain't da time' to bet you that you won't use your powers on it either huh?"

Gambit's eyes light up and he smirks, "Did ya say bet..."

~A few hours later~

John blinks at Tatyana as she holds out a plate full of hot beignets and a DVD of Robot Chicken.

"Why do you have dough in your hair?" He reaches up and pulls the piece of dough out of her grayish colored hair and tosses it into the trash.

Tatyana grins and pops a pastry into her mouth, "T'would seem that kinetically charged dough makes a pretty big mess when it explodes. Sorry it took so long, 'Roro made us clean the kitchen and Remy wanted to make her some more beignets to apologize. Here, eat."

The boy looks warily at the pastries then back at Tatyana, "Uh..."

The girl frowns a little before she shrugs and sits on the bed with the plate in her hands, "I thought I did a good job."

John twitches when the girl frowns and walks over, opening his mouth to tell her to give him one when she sticks one into his mouth with a smirk. He chews slowly then swallows glancing down at the still smirking girl.

"Good huh, cap?"

"It's okay, fine its good. Since when can you cook?" John says licking sugar from his lips as the girl licks her fingers.

"Since forever, okay not really. I'm not that great in the kitchen since stuff tends to not go well when I'm around ovens, sharp objects or anything that is supposed to even go in food. Heck the most I can make is a scrambled egg. But besides the whole...making anything that involves food explode thing, I'm trying to learn," Tatyana smiles brightly, obviously proud of herself and he can't help but stare at the bit of sugar on her lips, "Did I do okay?"

John leans forward and kisses the girl quickly, licking sugar from her bottom lip before pulling away, "You did great, sweetie. Sweetie?" He pokes the girl's cheek a little.

Tatyana blinks in shock, a light purple blush appearing on her skin, "Y...you...wow."

"Don't worry about it." He ruffles her hair a bit and grabs another beignet before walking to the Playstation and putting in the first dvd. Moving the still slightly in shock Ty over and finishing his pastry, he wraps his arms around her and gently nuzzles her neck, pulling her down with him.

The girl half purrs before pulling away and staring at him then she sighs and settles her head on his chest like always.

John smiles just a little but it fades when his hand touches the burn scar on her arm, "Ty..."

"It's nothing. I got burnt when I was cooking. Don't worry about it." She mumbles, staring at the TV screen.

John just tilts her so he can look at the somewhat oval shaped mark. It was red and raised, but looked like it was slowly fading back to a really pale purple.

"How did you manage to burn your forearm? What did you do, stick your whole arm in the oven?" The boy says with a growl

"If I say yes..."

"Ty, you don't even use an oven to make beignets..." John glares and she sighs.

"Amara accidentally burned me. I guess I was standing to close to her when she was using her powers. It's fine, apparently I heal fast."

"Ty..."John trails off when the girl frowns at him.

"Geeze , John, it's no biggie. Why is everyone so worried about it?"

John rolls his eyes, "Maybe because it's pretty noticeable. You aren't exactly flesh toned at the moment you know."

Tatyana frowns more and her skin shifts a little but just goes to a slightly darker purple then she already was.

"Yeah that worked."

His friend sighs and just pops another beignet into his mouth to shut him up before turning towards the TV. She finally speaks after a few minutes, "Ororo was worried about it too..."

"I bet. Probably thought it came from me right?"

"Something like that, yes. She thought you might have lost control of your abilities but you can't make flames can you?" She peeks up at him.

John looks away, "No. No...I can't."

"Then why are...you are getting really warm ...hot actually. Is this normal for you?"

"Only when I can't calm down. Sorry."

Tatyana touches his cheek with her fingertips and wincing when her fingers are slightly burnt. He was incredibly hot to the touch but he seemed fine, "I take it that you don't want to talk about it."

John reaches out and touches her hand, trying to lower his body temperature, "Actually I do...just so you don't hear the story from... someone else."

"Well tell me when you feel up to it." Tatyana smiles just a little and John nods and hugs her, burying his face into her hair.

"Just don't judge me when I tell you. Please, I don't want to lose you too..."

~*~*~*~~~*

BRC: Please Review. Criticism is welcomed though flaming isn't.


	12. I Want to Hold Your Hand

Chapter Twelve: I Want to Hold Your Hand

John had promised to tell her about his past but that had been at a week ago and he was still dodging the question. Tatyana did not want to press the issue because it obviously hurt her friend to even think about it but she couldn't help but wonder what John's life was like before he became Pyro.

But she stays silent, ending up watching him in Biology and thinking about him more often then she wanted too. It was strange after years of being in love with Kayvan, liking someone else seemed very different from her former feelings. Where her love for Kayvan was built on years of being around the same boy and knowing almost everything about him, with emphasis on almost; this crush, this infatuation was more passionate. She simply wanted John, it was that simple. He plagued her thoughts and dreams and he found ways to get under her skin and stay there.

She found herself wanting to be around the boy more, to do things for him. While she was defiantly not going to go through the whole "kept man" ordeal that she saw some of her old friends do. Heck she could barely show the boy her feelings, something always keeping her from truly expressing herself around him.

But she still felt that even while they, well he, flirted that both of them were keeping each other from being in a romantic relationship. He had his secrets and she had hers and because of this they stayed friends.

She wasn't sure if she could continue to be just friends with him.

"Well someone's not paying attention," A voice whispers in her ear and she yelps and frowns at Jubilee, "Aww, expecting someone else?"

"Like who, Jubes? And what am I supposed to be paying attention to here? This is study hall for god's sake." She whispers back, "Plus it's taught by Wolverine so I'm pretty sure he can hear every word we're saying."

As if on cue Logan's eyes shift towards the girls over his newspaper.

"Hmmm...oh well he'll tune us out when he realizes that it's simply girl talk about boys and not who dyed his boxer shorts pink a few days ago. That happened to be done by Cannonball by the way." Jubilee grins seeing the older man growl and chew on his cigar harder, going back to his paper.

"Sam and Rahne are going to kill you, you do know that right?" Tatyana shakes her head and tries to go back to her book, smirking some when Jubilee pulls her headphones over her ears and tries to fall asleep like the rest of the class.

Someone slides into the seat next to her and Tatyana found herself staring into a pair of cold blue eyes that belonged to a certain blond.

"You must be Tatyana Winston."

"I would think you would know that after attempting to set my arm on fire." Tatyana smiles brightly though her right eye twitched a little, "Amara I presume?"

"That's my old name. Everyone calls me Allison now. It's lovely to finally meet you." The blond flips her hair and holds out her hand and the other mutant just stares at it.

"Forgive me if I'm somewhat wary of touching any part of your body. I'm sure you know why, bi...Allison."

Allison grins, "That was an accident. I truly didn't mean for my powers to flare up like that. I'm so sorry. How about as an apology I give you a makeover? Lord knows you could use one. Maybe you can catch another boy's eye instead of my leftovers."

"Your "leftover" seems to like my look. Maybe he was tired of fake blonds with fake tans and even faker breasts."

The two girls glare at each other but the sweet smiles stay on their faces. Tatyana was surprised that Logan hadn't jumped in but when she glanced over she saw him outside the door talking to Ororo.

"Well speaking of my darling ex, who we all know will come to his senses and come crawling back to me, I just wanted to warn you about him. I know you probably have it in your pretty little head that you love him or something silly like that and he is probably saying that he loves you too but you don't know the real him. St. John Allerdyce isn't the nice boy you think you know. He's a monster who burnt down his own home and harmed his family," Allison shakes her head staring the other girl down, "I would get out while I still could if I were you. You are simply too weak to handle his abilities, Ty Ty. He will burn you to a crisp if he gets angry and I bet you won't heal from that."

Tatyana falls silent before speaking, staring at the girl through her bangs, "And I suppose you will be perfectly fine if he burnt you. I bet you think that your flame powers make you two the perfect match made in hell? Well let me tell you something, you blond bitch, I'm not going to let you hurt John again with whatever mind games you played on him last time. I suggest you take your fake hair extensions and your manicured nails and find another person to play games with. 'Cause sweetie I might not know every fucking thing about John but you don't know shit about me either and I'm not as weak as you think. I ...will... cut... you."

Allison watches as the girl's nails and teeth lengthen and backs up, falling out of her seat on to the floor, "You ..."

Tatyana leans forward an animalistic smile growing on her face, "Watch yourself, prey, oh and if you ever have the feeling that you need to burn me again, remember that next time I might retaliate by trying to claw out those pretty blue eyes of yours. Kay?"

The bell rings and Tatyana looks around to see most of the people in the class watching her, Logan included.

"So I guess I'm getting detention huh, Mr. Logan?"

Logan nods, "You guessed right. Meet me in the Danger Room at 5. Amara you get to have detention with Professor Summers. That should be a nice welcome home present."

The two girls groan and Jubilee pats Tatyana's knee, "it's okay. At least you looked scary awesome in study hall."

Tatyana just groans and leans her head on the desk before she thought about what Allison had said.

'John burnt down his home?'

* * *

Amara Aquilla, also known as Allison Crestmere, was not a happy girl. She used to be back when things were normal and she was simply a young Brazilian girl who didn't have much to worry about. Truthfully she wasn't sure why she felt the need to be mean to Tatyana and John. She didn't think she still had feelings for her ex, in fact she actually didn't want much to do with him after she found out everything that happened to him after she left years ago. But there was some part of her that had to lay claim on the boy, a part that wanted Tatyana to prove that she could handle being with John like she couldn't.

Truth be told, Amara was pretty much done with males. Before dating John she had fallen in love with another student at the school who was called Empath. Empath could control the emotions of others and while Amara was completely in love with the boy she began to suspect that the only reason she felt this way was because of Empath's control over her. After finding out that he had used his powers on her once, though she still wasn't sure of the reason, it left her feeling somewhat violated and the two separated.

Then Amara met Pyro.

He had been new to the school then, a skinny brown haired boy who gave off the bad boy vibe that she and so many other female students liked back then. He kept to his self mostly and only talked to his roommate Bobby; obviously not good with making new friends though he was still a huge flirt.

She had spoken to him only because of a dare and ended up enjoying the other flame user's company. Soon she asked him out and they started dating.

Everything was fine until she heard the rumors of his past.

John back then was unstable, nervous around most people and though cocky he didn't seem to like using his powers then nor did he like being around her when she used hers. She eventually got him to open up more and to become comfortable with being around fire. He became so comfortable around flames that he used his powers more and more but he became obsessed with getting stronger and controlling his abilities.

She had asked him why and he told her and what he told her scared her so much that she couldn't see the same person that she had fallen for anymore. Fear that he would hurt her like Empath did caused her to push him away but he wouldn't get the picture. It didn't help that he was friends with that Rogue girl either who was known throughout the school for having dangerous powers as well.

So Amara told him that he was weak. That he would never control his powers and that she couldn't be with a person who was so unstable. That he and his freaky friend Rogue would not be able to control their powers.

He was obviously hurt and she left for Brazil once more, hoping to find someone or something safe and normal where she wouldn't get hurt.

And now when she saw him again for the first time she had honestly wanted to be back with him for a few minutes. The old connection she had felt had returned again. It didn't help that she felt jealous when she saw how comfortable Tatyana was with the boy when she couldn't feel that way. Jealousy fueled her actions as well as fear though she wasn't sure if it was fear of the other girl's safety or for Pyro's feelings. But she knew her old feelings of being hurt would not allow her to be with boy so she decided to see if this new girl could take being with Pyro. Because if she couldn't handle Allison, she sure as hell couldn't handle dealing with Pyro.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just let them a relationship on their own?" A voice says and she turns around to see an African-American boy sitting on the floor with a notebook in his hands. He had a black afro but his eyes were bright purple strangely enough and he wore a pair of khaki shorts with a green top and sandles.

"Did you just read my mind?" Allison growls, frowning at him.

"I couldn't help it. You were thinking quite loudly. My name is Marcel and you are?" The boy smiles and holds out his hand.

Allison blinks then shakes his hand slowly, "Ama...Allison. Everyone calls me Allison."

"It's nice to meet you, Amara. I doubt everyone calls you Allison but you would like them to right? Cause it sounds more American?"

"Stop doing that!" Allison says jerking her hands away.

Marcel frowns some then smiles, "I'm sorry ma'am. I'm not good with blocking my powers yet."

"It's fine. I just don't like the idea of people...men using their powers on me. What are you doing out here?"

"Oh I was drawing something for Professor Ororo's art class. It's not that good yet but I'm working on it." Marcel shows her a picture of a rose and she finds herself amazed at the realism that was portrayed in the picture.

"Wow that's amazing. How do you do that?"

The boy blushes a little and smiles, "I can show you if you like."

"I would love that. Would... you like to go eat lunch with me and you can show me there?" Amara blinks shocked that she would say that but she wanted to learn how to draw and he seemed like a good teacher.

"Sure."

Amara finds herself smiling as she walks with the quiet boy, his gentle voice explaining the project that Professor Ororo had assigned and why he had chosen a rose.

* * *

"You're distracted." Wolverine said as he slashes at Tatyana with his claws, three wounds opening on her exposed stomach. She winces and steps backwards, healing herself.

"You shouldn't be distracted. It will get you killed." Claws end up inches under her chin and Tatyana resists the urge to whimper.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just..."

"Worried about your friend? Chill kid I can smell the lust on both of ya...damn teens and their hormones. Anyway just tell the kid how you feel then fuck. It's not that big of a deal, you should know kids don't stay with the same people for that long," Logan blinks when he sees the look Tatyana gives him, "Kid I didn't mean it like that."

"Gee thanks..."

Logan ruffles the girl's hair, "I suppose I can tell you that if it was meant to be then you'll be together or somethin' sappy like that."

"Like you and Ororo? How's that going by the way? Me and Jubes have noticed that it usually starts to thunder at the same time every night..." Tatyana grins slowly glancing up at the man.

Logan rolls his eyes and lightly pushes in her back towards the door, "Go talk to your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Whatever. I need a smoke...and to see 'Ro..." Logan grins as he heads towards the dressing rooms, "Maybe we can get the storm started a little early tonight..."

Tatyana blinks and tilts her head to the side, "I don't think i needed to hear that..."

* * *

John yawns as he heads towards his bedroom door, annoyed at the knocking. He yanks it open and growls, "Listen Bobby, I don't give a crap about what annoying trick you plan to play on Beast...oh hi Ty."

"Hey."

"Why are you here at 3 in the morning? Ah..." John blinks as the girl grabs his arm and yanks him towards the bed after shutting and locking the door.

"Talk to me John. Not as Pyro but as John. I care about you and I want to know about you." She says taking a seat, tugging on the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders.

"But at 3 in the morning...you've been thinking about this all day haven't you and you couldn't go to sleep." John sighs when the girl nods and he sits beside her, staring down at his hands. Tatyana reaches over and takes one of them, lacing their fingers together.

"Yeah I have but I want you to tell me about you. I want to know what makes you, well you."

John smiles a little and begins his tale.


	13. Lean on Me

BRC: I do not own Marvel or X-men. This is somewhat of a work in progress so forgive my mistakes. I'm sorry i haven't updated in a while, school and work have kept me busy.

Chapter Thirteen: Lean on Me

Cole remembered his mother as being beautiful. Her hair had been long and jet black and her skin had been pale. He had gained his blond locks from his father but had gained his mother's blue eyes. He had loved his mother's eyes back then, remembering how they had lit up whenever he tried to please her which he did often. He would often drag her on walks outside and ask her to name the different plants and flowers they saw in the garden, which she did both in English and in French.

Her name was Evangeline Jeanne Reynard-Tiller, she was a young French woman who his father had once been in love with but was slowly losing interest in as time continued to pass. But back then he remembered his father had adored her. Everyone adored her in fact. No one ever hated Evangeline, she was nice to everyone even rude people and she didn't act like the typical wife of a successful businessman. While she did enjoy shopping, she preferred books over clothes and spent her time reading to her son and his best friend, the then young Tatyana.

Idelle Hawkins was her best friend and by default he was required to hang out with the woman's daughter. They met practically in the womb, having been born in the same hospital and been taken to visit each other just as babies. They were even given the same nanny, though Evangeline hated using a nanny and usually took Cole everywhere with her. Idelle and Evangeline were inseparable and soon Tatyana and Cole were as well.

Then Tatyana got "sick".

All he had then was his mother. His other friends were fake and only hung around him because they figured they could get something out of being his friend. Every day he went home and found his father locked in his study, either doing some important business call that he couldn't listen in on and his mother sitting in the library, her books stacked around her. Evangeline would take him into his arms and try to explain that his friend was having a tough time with her body at the moment and would be able to play with him again when she got better. She tried to explain that she had gone through the same thing and that it was a strange and confusing time for their kind but he didn't understand.

"She's just changing, darling. We all go through the changes in different ways and sometime it is very painful. Her mother had to go through it and I had to go through it so now it is her turn." She had whispered into his ears and back then he had thought she was talking about icky girl things that he had heard the other girls in his school discuss but now he knew the truth.

A few months later he walked into his house and ran to his parent's room only to find his mother crying and packing suitcases full of her clothes.

"Where are we going, mama?" Cole asks happily, even though he wondered why she was crying he loved going on trips with his mother and hoped that she would invite Idelle and Tatyana to travel with them.

"You are not going anywhere my son. I have to return to France to live with my mother and you will stay here with your father. Your father and I...are getting a divorce." Evangeline says and Cole frowns shaking his head widely.

"No you can't leave without me. You just can't. I don't want you to go!" He remembered his eleven year old self screaming and his mother hugs him to her.

"I must, mon fils. It's for the best. Please understand that I don't want to leave you alone but I have too. For the safety of both of us. Your father has fallen out of love with me anyway and loves another." Her mother growls a little, her blue eyes flashing.

Something happened then that Cole had pushed out of his mind from the trauma of his beloved mother leaving, wings, pure white bat wings extended from her shoulders and wrapped around him. She hummed a lullaby into his ears and rocked the crying boy until Byron came in and jerked her away from him. He remembered watching in horror as his father dragged his mother out of the house and threw her suitcases behind her.

"Stay away from my family you dirty mutant!", was the last thing he heard his father yell to his mother and he lay on the floor crying until his father's girlfriend walked in the room and hugged him.

"I'll be your new mommy now."

Cole snapped out of his dreams of the past and stared at the walls of his room, noticing that his geeky roommate had left the room. He sighs and sits up, popping his back slowly and wincing in the pain. His wings lay folded on his back and he still was not used to sleeping with them yet. His stomach growled a little and he frowns knowing that it wasn't food that his body wanted.

It seemed that his new form fed off of people's energy which he could take by touching their skin. The other energy would then power up his energy blasts which seemed to drain him rapidly. He had tried to feed it with normal food but it seemed like his body simply needed something else. He had used Fiorela when he had first gotten to the school and had drained so much energy from her that it left her in a coma like state according to his father's calls. He lied like he had nothing to do with it, telling his father about his trophy wife's addiction to drugs and he knew the man at least believed him somewhat.

The rest of the time, he got short bursts of energy from draining plants and animals and sometimes even humans by touching them briefly. But he knew his body craved more.

"Hmm...there's no way I could get to Ty though that brief taste of her I got did help a little...I wonder what the new girl tastes like..."

Cole smiles remembering the blond he had passed a few days ago and the tight shorts she had been wearing.

"Oh yes I really want to taste her..." Then another idea popped into his head and he smiles even wider.

"I wonder what Kayvan is doing..."

"I had just started getting my powers when I was around thirteen. I lived in Australia then with my mother and my younger brother. My father was there off and on, but usually he was busy with his work. Too busy to worry about us at least. I had always had an obsession with fire even back then and one day I found that if I concentrated really hard that I could make the fire do whatever I wanted." John said softly, flicking his lighter open and closed. Tatyana sat near him, her hand placed near his but not quite touching him yet.

"I was obsessed with this power. I felt like I was a god but I realized that this power wasn't fully in my control. I tried to practice it whenever I could and I used to show my younger brother the different shapes I made. He loved them, sometimes he was a bit like Bobby which is probably why the Popsicle became my best friend. He was loud and liked playing pranks and things like that...Well one day I was playing with my favorite lighter and showing Tatum and my mother this tiny horse I made when our father came in saw what I was doing."

"He didn't know I was a mutant. I hid it from him because mom told me to keep my powers hidden from him. 'He'll try to snuff out your fire, St. John. Don't let him or anyone take that spark from you' She would say to me at night, pressing the lighter into my hand. Well that day he saw and just started yelling at me. I sat there just playing with my lighter, trying to ignore him when he pushed me. Mom jumped in between us and tried to get him to stop pushing at me but he...hit her and I just snapped..."

John takes a shaky breath and slips his hand in to Tatyana's, "I lashed out at him with fire, Ty. It was so natural and almost reflexive that it scared me but it didn't hit just him. My mother was hit with the fire as well and I tried to stop the fire on her but she still ended up badly burned. She spent months in the hospital after that and now she and Tatum stay with her sister but I know my aunt doesn't want me near them. That's how I ended up at Xavier's, my aunt sent me here not only to get control over my powers but to get me as far away from them as possible. She doesn't want me to harm them again or worse...kill them like I killed my dad."

"Oh John...I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." Tatyana slowly pulls her friend into a hug, letting the boy she thought was so strong cry into her chest like she had done his.

"I don't want to lose you too, Ty. I'm trying to control my powers...it's why I went to Magneto and why I did all those bad things in my past. I wanted control. I wanted power. I didn't want to feel weak and know that I could get that angry again and hurt someone I cared about again. It didn't matter to me when I hurt strangers but knowing that someone close to me could be hurt like I hurt my mother I just..."

Tatyana just pets the man's hair, wiping away the tears she felt falling down her own cheeks for John's pain. She couldn't imagine feeling scared of her own powers, that fear of losing control like John felt. She had no idea how to comfort him but she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't leave him because of his past.

"I won't leave you, St. John. I love you too much to leave you."

*Mon Fils- my son

BRC: Please review!


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